JACK,  THE  YOUNG  EXPLORER 


By  the  same  Author 


Jack  the  Young  Cowboy 
Jack  the  Young  Trapper 
Jack  the  Young  Canoeman 
Jack  the  Young  Explorer 
Jack  in  the  Rockies 
Jack  Among  the  Indians 
Jack  the  Young  Ranchman 
Pawnee  Hero  Stories  and  Folk 

Tales 
Blackfoot  Lodge  Tales 
The  Story  of  the  Indian 
The  Indians  of  To-day 
The  Punishment  of  the  Stingy 
American  Duck  Shooting 
American  Game  Bird  Shooting 
Trails  of  the  Pathfinders 


THE  TENT  WAS  SHIVERING  AND  SHAKING  AND  FROM  IT  EMERGED  GROANS 

and  growls." — Page  130 


JACK 

THE   YOUNG   EXPLORER 

A   Boy  s    Experiences   in    the 
Unknown  Northwest 

BY- 
GEORGE    BIRD    GRINNELL 

Author  of  "Jack   in   the   Rockies,"    "Jack   the   Young   Ranchman,'* 

"Jack   Among   the   Indians,"    "  Pawnee   Hero   Stories," 

"Jack   the   Young  Trapper,"    etc. 


NEW   YORK 

FREDERICK   A.    STOKES    COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


Copyright,  1908,  by 
Frederick   A.  Stokes    Company 


September,  IQ08 
Eighth   Printing 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


FOREWORD 

For  untold  ages  the  mountain  goats  had  clambered 
undisturbed  along  the  face  of  the  steep  precipices  that 
overhang  the  St  Mary's  River  and  Swift  Current. 
Over  the  slide  rock  fallen  from  their  cliffs  the  wild 
sheep  had  beaten  out  paths  and  trails  zigzagging  from 
the  valley  below  to  the  heights  above.  On  the  lower 
wooded  slopes  the  elk  browsed  in  spring  and  fall, 
climbing  high  above  the  timber  at  the  season  when  the 
flies  were  bad,  and  again  when  snows  fell  at  the  ap- 
proach of  winter,  working  their  way  down  toward  the 
lower  lands  and  the  foothills  of  the  prairie.  In  the 
thick  swamps  and  morasses  of  the  river  bottom  the 
moose  dwelt,  sometimes  clambering  up  toward  the 
heights,  but  more  often  escaping  the  summer  flies  by 
burying  their  huge  bodies  beneath  the  waters  of  the 
lakes,  or  perhaps  by  wallowing  in  some  great  bog, 
from  which  they  emerged  covered  with  black  mud 
which,  drying,  formed  a  coating  that  protected  them. 
Everywhere  through  the  valleys,  on  the  hillsides,  far 
up  on  the  bald  knolls,  and  even  higher  still,  where  the 
sheep  and  goats  delighted  to  climb,  the  buffalo  of  the 
mountains — called  by  old  mountaineers  bison,  to  dis- 
tinguish them  from  the  yellower,  sunburned  animals 
of  the  plains — wandered  singly  or  in  little  groups. 

These  rough  and  rocky  fastnesses  protected  them 
well. 

The  Indians  of  the  plains  never  tried  to  pass  beneath 
these  gloomy  walls.    Occasionally  a  white  man  or  half- 


vi  FOREWORD 

breed,  more  frequently  a  little  band  of  Kootenay  or 
Stoney  Indians,  true  mountaineers,  followed  up  these 
rivers  for  a  short  distance,  hunting  the  game  and 
trapping  the  beaver;  but  in  those  days  game  was  so 
plentiful  that  these  occasional  excursions  made  no  im- 
pression on  it.  The  Indians  had  few  guns  and  hunted 
noiselessly,  chiefly  with  bows  and  arrows.  For  the 
most  part,  it  was  easier  to  kill  the  buffalo  of  the  plains 
by  the  swift  chase  than  to  go  into  the  rough  moun- 
tains and  hunt  the  game  that  lived  higher  up. 

It  was  into  this  region,  as  yet  unknown  to  white 
people,  that  Jack  and  his  friends  now  entered,  in  order 
to  explore  it  and  learn  for  themselves  what  it  held. 


CONTEXTS 


CHAPTER 

PAGE 

I. 

A  Meeting  of  Friends     . 

I 

II. 

Historic  Land 

1/ 

III. 

The  Blackfoot  Agency 

31 

IV. 

A  Medicine  Pipe  Ceremony 

13 

V. 

Off  for  the  Mountains 

59 

VI. 

A   Sheep   Hunt    ..... 

/';') 

VII. 

Old-time  Hunting  Ways 

■          85 

VIII. 

A  Big  Bear  Hide 

94 

IX. 

A  Blackfoot  Legend 

.        107 

X. 

The  Source  of  an  Unknown  Rivei 

*       114 

XI. 

The  Retreat 

•        *33 

XII. 

The  Ways  of  Beaver 

150 

XIII. 

The  Forks  of  Swift  Current  . 

.       16s 

XIV. 

A  Lynx  Visits  Camp 

.       178 

XV. 

Lone  Wolf's  Bay  Pony  . 

196 

XVI. 

An  Ice  River 

214 

XVII. 

A  Fat  Bighorn 

229 

XVIII. 

Among  the  Icefields     . 

.       244 

XIX. 

A  Four-footed  Hunter  . 

•       257 

XX. 

Climbing  a  Great  Mountain   . 

276 

XXI. 

Trouble  with  Whiskey  Traders 

To-day 

306 

LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


The  tent  was  shivering  and  shaking  and   from  it 
emerged    groans    and    growls  "      .      .     Frontispiece 

FACING    PAGE 

Bruce  had  to  keep  up,  for  if  he  had  fallen  he  would 
have  been  dragged  and  kicked  to  death"  212 

Jack  did  not  raise  his  sights,  but  following  Hugh's 
suggestion,  fired  at  the  animal's  neck  "...   230 

Hugh  took   hold   of   his   wrist  and   wrenched  the 
revolver  away   from  him " 292 


JACK,  THE  YOUNG  EXPLORER 


CHAPTER    I 

A    MEETING    OF    FRIENDS 

As  the  train  drew  slowly  into  the  Helena  station  Jack's 
eyes  searched  the  platform,  looking  for  Hugh,  and  in 
a  moment  he  recognized  the  tall  form,  standing  well 
back  from  the  crowd  and  looking  at  the  platform  of 
each  car  as  it  passed. 

"Hurrah,  Hugh!"  called  Jack,  as  he  waved  his 
hand  frantically;  but  he  had  to  jump  down  to  the  plat- 
form and  elbow  his  way  through  the  crowd  before 
Hugh's  eye  caught  his. 

"  Well,  son."  said  Hugh,  as  he  grasped  his  hand  in 
a  firm  clasp,  "  I  sure  am  glad  to  see  you.  I  only  got 
here  last  night  myself,  but  it's  been  a  long  day  wait- 
ing around  here  alone,  and  I  was  afraid  that  maybe 
you  wouldn't  come  on  this  train." 

"  Well,"  replied  Jack,  "  I'm  mighty  glad  to  get  here. 
I  was  a  little  afraid  that  maybe  something  might  have 
happened  to  keep  you,  and  that  I  should  have  to  do 
the  waiting.  It's  all  right  now  though,  and  I  hope 
we  can  get  off  to-morrow.  I  don't  want  to  stop  in 
towns  any  more  than  you  do,  and  I  guess  we  shall 
both  be  glad  to  get  into  camp." 

"  Sure,  we  will,"  said  Hugh.  "  Now,  what  have 
you  in  the  way  of  baggage?  Of  course  you've  got 
your  bed,  and  I  see  your  gun  and  bag  in  your  hand. 
I've  got  a  room  at  the  Merchants'  Hotel,  and  I 
reckon  we  might  as  well  go  up  there,  and  then  after 
you've  eaten  we  can  see  the  sights." 


2  JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  I've  got  a  small  trunk  and  my 
bed,  and  we  can  pack  those  up  to  the  hotel,  and  then 
I'll  put  the  stuff  I  need  in  my  bed  and  my  war  bag 
and  we'll  be  all  ready  for  the  stage  whenever  it  goes." 

"  All  right,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  reckon  we  better  take 
one  of  these  hacks  here,  and  the  man  can  put  your 
things  on  top,  while  we  ride  inside.  It  isn't  much  of 
a  walk  up  to  the  hotel,  only  about  a  mile,  but  maybe 
we'd  better  get  there  as  quick  as  we  can  and  have 
our  dinner  and  attend  to  our  business,  and  then  we 
won't  have  anything  on  our  minds." 

Before  long  they  were  rolling  rapidly  over  the 
smooth  road  toward  the  town,  which  stands  at  some 
distance  from  the  railroad.  As  they  passed  along, 
Jack  saw,  to  the  right,  enormous  piles  of  cobblestones 
extending  for  half  a  mile  or  more  toward  the  town. 
For  some  time  he  looked  at  them  with  curiosity,  and 
then  asked  Hugh  what  they  were. 

"  Why,  don't  you  know?  "  Hugh  replied.  "  That's 
the  old  placer  ground  that  they  used  to  work  over 
when  this  camp  was  first  settled.  Last  Chance  Gulch 
they  called  it.  That  gravel  and  rock  that  you  see 
there  came  out  of  the  sluice  boxes.  Every  little  while, 
I'm  told,  a  man  comes  down  here  now  and  works 
over  some  of  that  gravel,  and  they  say  that  to-day 
there's  fair  wages  to  be  made  mining  right  here  in  the 
town.  I've  heard  that  there  are  some  Chinamen  that 
work  these  gravels  right  along.  There's  a  heap  of 
gold  been  taken  out  of  that  gulch,  but,  of  course,  just 
how  much  nobody  knows.  Every  now  and  then,  in 
digging  the  foundations  of  a  house  in  town,  some  man 
will  turn  up  a  little  nugget  of  gold,  and  then  all  the 


A  MEETING   OF   FRIEXDS  3 

workmen  quit  digging  and  begin  to  pan  out  the  foun- 
dations." 

"  That  seems  queer,  Hugh,  doesn't  it  ?  I  suppose 
the  same  thing  happens  in  lots  of  places  along  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  because  a  great  many  of  the  big 
towns  now  stand  where  old  mining  camps  used  to  be." 

"  Yes/'  said  Hugh,  "  that's  surely  true.  There's 
lots  of  gold  left  in  the  sides  of  these  hills  yet,  even 
after  the  miners  have  been  over  the  dirt." 

"  What  kind  of  a  trip  did  you  have  coming  up, 
Hugh?"  asked  Jack.  "  Did  anything  happen  on  the 
road?" 

"  No,"  replied  Hugh ;  "  nothing  of  any  account. 
Joe  drove  me  in  to  the  railroad  with  my  stuff.  He 
had  to  come  in  for  a  load  of  groceries  and  a  keg  of 
nails,  and  I  took  the  train  west  to  Ogden,  and  that 
little  narrow  gauge  road  up  to  Garrisons,  and  then 
came  east  on  the  main  line.  I  was  kind  of  scared  that 
maybe  I'd  get  lost,  making  so  many  changes;  but 
everybody  I  met  was  mighty  pleasant  spoken,  and  I 
didn't  have  a  mite  of  trouble.  Of  course  you  know 
what  I  saw  on  the  road,  for  you  and  I  went  back  that 
same  way  two  years  ago,  when  we  came  back  from 
the  coast." 

By  this  time  they  were  climbing  the  hills  of  the 
town,  and  a  moment  later  the  hack  stopped  in  front 
of  the  Merchants'  Hotel.  Jack  got  a  room,  in  which 
his  things  were  put,  and  the  two  friends  went  down 
to  dinner. 

After  this  was  over,  it  took  Jack  but  half  an  hour 
to  get  from  his  trunk  and  pack  in  his  bag  the  few 
things  that  he  needed  for  his  trip,  and  then  he  and 


4  JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

Hugh  sallied  out  and  took  a  long  walk  out  of  town, 
into  the  high  hills  which  overlook  Helena  and  the 
great  flat  through  which  the  river  flows. 

On  the  way  back  they  passed  the  stage  office  and  ar- 
ranged for  two  seats  on  the  box  of  the  stage  that  left 
the  next  morning. 

"  It  ain't  much  use  for  you  to  engage  these  seats," 
said  the  man  in  the  office ;  "  I  don't  believe  there's  ary 
person  going  out  to-morrow  morning  except  you  two, 
still  111  put  your  names  down  for  the  two  seats  on 
the  box  if  you  like.  It  can't  do  no  harm,  anyhow. 
You  have  your  stuff  down  here  to-morrow  morn- 
ing any  time  after  seven  o'clock  and  we'll  take  care 
of  it  and  see  that  it  goes  on  the  stage." 

Their  long  walk  had  given  Hugh  and  Jack  a  good 
appetite  and  they  heartily  enjoyed  their  supper.  After 
they  had  eaten  they  started  out  again  and  walked 
through  the  brilliantly  lighted  streets,  looking  in  at 
the  windows  of  shops  and  saloons,  each  of  which 
seemed  to  be  full  of  customers.  The  air  was  mild  and 
balmy  and  the  beautiful  night  had  brought  many 
people  into  the  street. 

As  they  passed  an  open  door,  from  which  shone  a 
bright  light,  Jack  looked  in  and  saw  people  sitting 
at  tables  playing  cards,  while  toward  the  back  of  the 
room  was  a  long  narrow  table  surrounded  by  men 
who  seemed  greatly  interested  in  what  was  going  on. 

"  What  are  they  doing  in  there,  Hugh  ?  "  said  Jack. 

"  Why,  I  reckon  that's  a  gambling  house,"  was  the 
reply.  "  You  know  there's  no  law  against  gambling 
in  most  of  these  Montana  towns,  the  way  I  hear  there 
is  in  towns  back  East.  Everybody  is  free  to  go  in  and 
play  if  he  wants  to." 


A  MEETING   OF   FRIENDS  5 

"  I've  never  been  in  a  gambling  house,  Hugh.  Can't 
we  go  in  and  look  on?  I'd  like  to  see  what  they  are 
doing." 

"  Why,  yes,"  said  Hugh ;  "  there's  no  harm  in  going 
in  and  looking  on.  That  isn't  the  sort  of  thing  that 
I  would  do  for  fun,  but  there's  no  harm  in  it  and  you 
may  see  something  that  will  teach  you  a  good  lesson. 
I  never  was  much  on  gambling  myself.  I  never  had 
much  money  to  lose,  and  I  never  wanted  to  win  any- 
body else's.  It  never  seemed  to  me  quite  square  to 
take  money  without  you  worked  for  it.  I  never  could 
see  the  sense  of  betting,  either;  but,  come  on;  let's 
go  in." 

Hugh  led  the  way  into  the  room,  and  Jack  followed. 
The  people  playing  at  the  various  tables  and  those 
overlooking  the  game  paid  no  attention  to  them.  All 
were  intent  on  their  own  affairs.  Hugh  walked  around 
to  one  end  of  the  long  table  and  gradually  edged  his 
way  into  the  crowd,  gently  pushing  men  this  way  and 
that  in  so  good-natured  a  fashion  that  no  one  objected 
to  it.  Jack  kept  close  behind  him,  and  presently,  when 
Hugh  had  reached  a  point  where  he  had  a  good  view 
of  the  table,  he  squeezed  back  a  little  and  let  Jack 
pass  in  and  stand  in  front  of  him. 

Behind  the  table  sat  a  man  smoking  a  long  cigar, 
while  in  front  of  him  was  a  little  silver  box  about  the 
size  of  a  playing  card,  from  which  at  short  intervals 
the  man  drew  two  cards,  one  after  another,  which  he 
placed  on  two  little  piles  by  the  box.  In  the  middle 
of  the  table  was  a  long  frame  on  wrhich  were  painted 
representations  of  cards,  and  on  these  cards,  in  vari- 
ous positions,  were  placed  circular  disks,  white,  red, 
and  blue.      The   players   placed   these   disks   on   the 


6  JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

cards,  and  then  when  two  cards  came  out  of  the  box, 
sometimes  the  dealer  took  over  to  his  side  of  the  table 
the  chips  that  were  on  a  particular  card,  or  else  put 
on  that  card  as  many  more  chips  as  were  already  on 
it.  Then  the  player  usually  removed  these  chips  and 
put  some  or  all  of  them  on  another  card.  Most  of 
the  people  about  the  table  appeared  to  be  acquainted 
with  each  other,  and  those  who  spoke  to  the  dealer 
seemed  to  know  him,  calling  him  by  his  first  name. 
For  some  minutes  Jack  watched  the  game  intently 
and  began  to  have  a  glimmering  idea  of  how  it  was 
played.  Once  or  twice  he  whispered  a  question  to 
Hugh,  but  Hugh  shook  his  head  for  silence,  and  one 
or  two  of  the  people  near  by  looked  frowningly  at 
the  speaker.  "  Evidently,"  Jack  thought,  "  this  is  not 
a  place  for  conversation." 

As  they  stood  there,  the  crowd  in  the  room  in- 
creased; more  and  more  people  gathered  around  the 
faro  table;  the  smoke  in  the  air  grew  thicker,  and 
there  was  the  sound  of  more  or  less  hum  and  bustle. 
Presently  Jack  felt  a  hand  on  his  shoulder,  and  look- 
ing back  at  Hugh  saw  him  move  his  head  toward  the 
door,  and  the  two  pushed  their  way  through  the 
crowd  and  out  again  into  the  street. 

"  Might  as  well  get  away  from  there,"  said  Hugh ; 
"  they  are  playing  pretty  heavy.  Two  or  three  men 
came  in  that  were  full  of  liquor,  and  it  looks  to  me 
as  if  there  might  be  trouble  in  there  to-night.  There's 
no  special  reason  why  we  should  be  there  if  there's 
going  to  be  any  shooting." 

"  No,"  said  Jack,  "  I  should  say  not.  It's  about  the 
last  place  in  which  I'd  want  to  be  shot,  a  gambling 
house." 


A  MEETING  OF   FRIEXDS  7 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  you're  dead  right  about  that. 
I  don't  know  as  I'd  mind  about  being  killed  if  I  had 
to  be  killed,  but  I'd  like  to  have  it  done  in  the  risfht 
sort  of  a  place." 

"  Is  there  much  of  that  thing  going  on  in  town, 
Hugh  ?  "  asked  Jack. 

"  Right  smart,"  said  Hugh.  "  I  reckon  from  what 
I  saw  last  night  and  from  what  I  hear  that  there 
must  be  twenty-five  or  thirty  places  like  that,  and 
maybe  a  good  many  more  that  are  not  as  decent  as  that 
one." 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  do  men  lose  much  money 
there?  " 

"  I  reckon  they  do,"  answered  Hugh.  "  A  whole 
lot  more  than  they  can  afford,  even  if  the  game  is 
straight.  There's  quite  a  percentage  in  favor  of  the 
dealer  and  a  good  many  of  the  games  are  not  straight." 

"  How  do  you  mean,  Hugh?  "  said  Jack.  "  Do  the 
gamblers  cheat?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  reckon  they  do.  Some  of 
those  fellows  are  awful  slick  at  dealing  and  shuffling. 
They  can  shuffle  the  cards  just  about  the  way  they 
want  them,  so  that  they  know  just  what  card  is  com- 
ing out  next,  and  if  they  see  the  bets  are  going  against 
them  they  can  slip  two  cards  out  of  the  box  instead  of 
one  and  make  themselves  win  instead  of  lose." 

"  But,"  said  Jack,  "  I  should  think  they  would  get 
caught  at  it." 

"No,"  said  Hugh,  "scarcely  ever;  and  if  a  man 
does  see  anything  crooked,  it's  only  his  word  against 
the  dealer's,  and  the  dealer  is  apt  to  have  two  or 
three  friends  around  the  table  who  will  talk  for  him. 
If  the  worst  comes  to  worst,  why,  of  course,  the  dealer 


8  JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

has  got  to  draw  quick,  and  usually  he  is  a  man  who 
can  do  that." 

"  Do  you  mean  shoot,  Hugh  ?  "  said  Jack. 

"  Well,  yes,"  said  Hugh ;  "  sometimes  it  comes  to 
that,  though  generally  the  dealer  can  bluff  it  out,  espe- 
cially if  he's  got  two  or  three  men  to  wrangle  and 
shout  for  him." 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  that  seems  pretty  rough." 

"  It  is  rough,"  said  Hugh ;  "  but  that's  the  way  it 
is  in  a  good  many  of  these  towns." 

Soon  after  seven  o'clock  next  morning  Jack  and 
Hugh  were  at  the  stage  office  with  their  beds,  their 
bags,  and  their  rifles.  For  a  time  they  sat  on  their 
rolls  of  bedding  talking,  but  at  length  a  man  came  out 
from  a  stable  near  by  and  spoke  to  Hugh,  and  the 
beds  were  carried  into  the  stable  and  lashed  on  to 
the  rack  behind  the  stage  and  the  bags  thrown  into 
the  boot  under  the  driver's  seat.  A  little  later  the 
four  horses  were  brought  out  and  hitched  to  the  ve- 
hicle, and  presently  the  driver,  carrying  his  long  whip, 
came  from  the  office  The  stage  was  led  out  into  the 
street  before  the  stable,  the  driver  mounted,  and  Jack 
and  Hugh  followed  him,  all  three  sitting  on  the  front 
seat.  Then  a  clerk  came  from  the  office  and  spoke 
to  the  driver,  telling  him  that  there  were  no  other 
passengers  that  morning,  and  with  a  parting  nod  the 
team  started  off  and  trotted  swiftly  out  of  town. 

"  Hugh,"  said  Jack,  "  is  this  the  sort  of  stage  that 
they  use  everywhere  in  the  mountains  ?  " 

"  No,"  replied  Hugh,  "  I  reckon  not.  This  is  the 
old-fashioned  stage,  such  as  they  used  to  drive  in 
crossing  the  plains  away  back  before  the  railroad  was 
built,  but  stage-driving  is  pretty  near  over  now  and 


A  MEETING  OF   FRIENDS  9 

the  old  stages  are  laid  on  the  shelf.  Usually  for  these 
short  little  mountain  trips  most  any  kind  of  a  jerky 
or  even  a  lumber  wagon  is  used.  This  stage  here  is 
one  of  the  real  old  kind." 

It  was  a  high,  large  vehicle  hung  on  C  springs, 
with  abundant  room  inside  and  two  or  three  seats 
without.  Back  of  the  seats  the  roof  of  the  coach 
was  strengthened  with  slats  of  wood  running  length- 
wise, and  all  about  this  roof  was  a  high  iron  railing, 
so  that  a  good  lot  of  baggage  might  be  piled  there 
and  lashed  firmly  to  the  top. 

"  I  have  seen  coaches  like  this  more  than  once,"  said 
Jack.  "  Up  in  Massachusetts,  where  my  grandfather 
lives,  they  have  just  such  a  coach  as  this  to  send  around 
the  village  to  gather  passengers  for  the  train  in  the 
morning,  and  it  takes  away  the  passengers  that  come 
by  the  train  and  leaves  them  at  their  homes.  Once, 
too,  when  I  went  to  the  Catskill  Mountains,  they  had 
a  stage  like  this  to  take  us  from  the  landing  at  the 
river  up  to  the  hotel,  a  long  drive." 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  these  coaches  are  easy  to  ride 
in,  but  by  the  time  a  man's  been  on  the  stage  about 
twenty-four  hours  he  is  generally  in  the  frame  of  mind 
where  he  is  willing  to  fight  with  his  best  friend.  You 
see,  the  trouble  is,  he  can't  get  any  sleep,  and  without 
sleep  a  man's  temper  shortens  up  pretty  fast." 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  we  have  got  to  go  more  than 
twenty- four  hours  without  sleep,  haven't  we?  We 
travel  right  along,  don't  we?  "  he  asked,  turning  to  the 
driver,  who  nodded  in  reply  and  added  that  it  would 
take  in  the  neighborhood  of  twenty-four  hours  to  get 
to  Benton.  "  Of  course,"  he  remarked,  "  we  could  go 
faster  if  there  was  any  reason  for  it.     We  change 


io        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

teams  about  every  fifteen  miles,  but  there  is  no  reason 
why  we  should  hurry  the  horses.  It  doesn't  make  any 
difference  to  you,  I  reckon,  whether  yet  get  in  at  four 
o'clock  in  the  morning  or  six,  does  it?  " 

"  Not  a  bit,"  said  Jack.  "  I  like  this  riding  on  a 
stage,  but  I  don't  know  just  how  long  I'll  continue 
to  like  it." 

They  had  now  turned  from  the  flat  prairie,  over 
which  the  smooth  road  ran  straight,  and  were  enter- 
ing a  wide  valley  of  the  mountains,  which  gradually 
closed  in  on  them  until  there  seemed  hardly  room  for 
more  than  the  river  that  flowed  through  it  and  the 
road. 

"  That's  Wolf  Creek,"  said  the  driver,  motioning 
toward  the  stream  with  his  whip.  "  And  this  here 
canyon  that  we  are  going  through  is  called  Prickly 
Pear  Canyon." 

On  either  side  of  the  stream  the  hills  rose  sharply, 
sometimes  in  steep  grassy  slopes,  shaggy  with  clumps 
of  small  pines  and  spruces,  at  others,  in  a  sheer  rocky 
precipice,  or  yet  again  in  steep  slopes  covered  with 
small  shrubbery  through  which  great  knobs  of  rock 
showed  here  and  there. 

"Any  game  on  these  hills?"  asked  Hugh  of  the 
driver. 

"  Plenty  of  deer,"  was  the  reply,  "  and  some  elk ; 
lots  of  bear,  too.  Not  many  people  travel  over  these 
hills,  except  prospectors,  and  they  don't  do  any  hunt- 
ing to  amount  to  anything." 

As  he  finished  speaking,  Jack,  who  had  been  scan- 
ning the  hillside  ahead  of  the  team,  suddenly  grasped 
Hugh's  arm  and  said,  "  There's  a  deer  now,  Hugh." 

"  Sure  enough,"  said  Hugh,  and  all  hands  looking, 


A  MEETING   OF   FRIEXDS  n 

a  black-tail  was  seen  feeding  alone  on  the  hillside,  not 
eating  the  grass,  but  walking  from  one  clump  of  weeds 
or  brush  to  another  and  biting  a  mouthful  of  food 
from  each.  As  they  drew  nearer,  the  animal  heard  the 
trotting  of  the  horses  or  the  rattle  of  the  coach  and 
stood  for  a  few  moments  looking  innocently  at  the 
team  as  it  approached.  The  deer  was  a  young  buck, 
his  horns,  of  course,  in  the  velvet,  for  it  was  but  the 
last  of  June.  He  studied  the  team  with  his  huge  ears 
turned  forward  to  catch  the  sound  which  it  made,  and 
every  now  and  then  lifted  his  head  higher,  and  seemed 
to  feel  the  air  with  his  nose. 

At  last,  when  the  coach  was  fairly  close  to  him,  the 
driver  said,  "  Do  either  of  you  want  to  take  a  shot 
at  him?" 

"  Not  I,"  said  Hugh. 

"  Nor  I,"  said  Jack. 

"  Well,"  said  the  driver,  "  I'm  glad  you  don't,  for 
it  would  take  us  some  time  to  butcher  him,  and  I 
don't  like  to  loaf  much  just  after  starting  out.  The 
end  of  the  day  is  the  better  time  to  drive  slowly." 

Presently  the  buck  seemed  to  have  satisfied  himself 
that  there  was  possible  danger  in  this  great  object  ap- 
proaching him,  and  turning,  he  bounded  lightly  along 
the  hillside,  gradually  working  up  until  at  last  he 
passed  out  of  sight. 

"  Wasn't  it  fine,  Hugh,"  said  Jack,  "  to  see  him  use 
his  nose.  That  is  what  a  deer  depends  on,  isn't  it? 
He  doesn't  trust  his  eyes  very  much,  nor  his  ears,  but 
his  nose  never  lies  to  him." 

"  Well,"  replied  Hugh,  "  that's  so.  And  it  isn't  so 
only  about  deer,  but  about  all  sorts  of  game  animals. 
I've  had  deer  walk  right  straight  up  to  me.     So  long 


12         JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

as  I  kept  still  they  didn't  pay  any  attention  to  me,  and 
likely  thought  I  was  a  stump  or  a  rock,  but  just  as 
soon  as  they  passed  along  near  enough  to  catch  the 
wind  of  me  they  never  stopped  to  look  or  listen,  but 
got  up  and  dusted  the  best  they  knew  how;  and  yet 
you  can  come  on  a  bunch  of  deer  and  they'll  hear 
you  and  jump  to  their  feet  and  look  at  you,  and  maybe 
you  can  fire  three  or  four  shots  at  them  and  kill  two 
or  three  before  they'll  run  away." 

"  Yes,"  said  the  driver,  "  that's  sure  enough  true ; 
but  you  mustn't  say  that  it's  only  deer  or  game  that 

acts  that  way.    Take  a  dog  now " 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  that's  right  enough,  too." 
"  Why,"  said  the  driver,  "  I  have  seen  dogs — owned 
'em,  too — that  didn't  seem  to  get  any  satisfaction  at 
all  out  of  their  eyes ;  they  couldn't  trust  them.  I  have 
seen  the  time  when  I'd  be  walking  along  with  my 
dog,  and  maybe  I'd  get  a  little  ahead  or  a  little  behind 
him  and  I'd  stop  to  talk  with  three  or  four  fellows, 
and  the  dog  would  start  to  look  for  me;  and  even  if 
he  saw  me  right  plain,  he  wouldn't  be  sure  it  was  me 
until  he  had  come  up  behind  me  and  stuck  the  end  of 
his  nose  against  my  leg  so  that  he  could  smell  me.  I 
remember  once  standing  with  three  or  four  men  in 
front  of  the  Bella  saloon  in  Benton  when  my  dog  did 
a  trick  like  that.  One  of  the  men  I  was  talking  to 
didn't  like  dogs ;  in  fact,  he  was  awful  scared  of  them. 
The  dog  came  up  to  us  and  smelt  of  each  man,  and 
when  he  shoved  his  nose  hard  against  the  leg  of  the 
man  who  was  afraid  of  dogs,  the  man  felt  the  dog's 
nose  and  looked  down  and  saw  the  dog,  and  he 
thought  he'd  been  bit.  He  jumped  about  four  feet 
into  the  air  and  reached  for  his  gun  to  try  to  kill  the 


A  MEETING   OF   FRIENDS  13 

dog  that  had  bit  him,  but  the  others  of  us  got  hold 
of  him  and  held  him  until  we'd  explained  matters. 

"  Curious  how  scared  some  people  are  over  a  little 
thing,  and  yet  maybe  all  the  time  they've  got  good 
sand  and  wouldn't  run  away  in  the  worst  kind  of  a 
scrap." 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  that's  one  of  the  queer  things 
about  human  nature;  you  never  can  tell  what  it  is 
that  is  going  to  scare  a  man.  I've  seen  men  that 
would  run  a  mile  to  get  away  from  some  little  bug  like 
a  spider  or  a  hornet,  and  yet  I  know  those  men  weren't 
cowards,  because  I've  seen  them  in  tight  places  and 
they  were  always  willing  to  take  as  many  risks  as 
anybody.  Why,  once  I  even  saw  a  man  that  was 
afraid  of  a  mouse." 

"  No?  "  exclaimed  the  stage  driver. 

"  Fact,"  said  Hugh.  "  He  was  afraid  of  a  mouse, 
and  when  one  ran  over  his  face,  just  after  he  had  gone 
to  bed,  he  got  up  and  sat  by  the  fire  all  night  for  fear 
it  would  do  it  again." 

"  Why,  Hugh,"  said  Jack,  "  don't  you  remember 
that  the  great  Napoleon  was  afraid  of  a  cat.  It  would 
make  him  sick  if  there  was  one  in  the  room,  even 
though  he  didn't  see  it  and  didn't  know  that  it  was 
there.  And  Napoleon  was  one  of  the  greatest  soldiers 
that  ever  lived,  and,  I  suppose,  a  brave  man." 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  reckon  he  was." 

"  I  have  known  lots  of  people,"  Jack  went  on,  "  who 
were  afraid  of  snakes.  It  didn't  make  any  difference 
whether  they  were  venomous  snakes  or  not.  Just 
as  long  as  they  were  snakes,  they  scared  these 
people." 

"  That's  so,"  said  Hugh.     "  I've  known  one  man 


i4        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

that  was  afraid  of  snakes,  and,  what's  more,  he  could 
tell  if  there  was  one  around,  whether  he  saw  it  or 
not.  He  said  he  smelled  them.  That  seems  queer, 
too." 

"  It  does  for  a  fact,"  remarked  the  driver. 

Before  they  had  passed  through  the  Prickly  Pear 
Canyon  they  reached  the  stage  station  where  the  horses 
were  to  be  changed.  There  all  hands  got  down  and 
walked  about  a  little  to  stretch  their  legs;  but  in  a 
very  few  minutes  four  fresh  horses  had  been  har- 
nessed and  they  recommenced  their  journey. 

"  Do  you  ever  have  trouble  with  road  agents  on 
this  line?"  Hugh  asked  of  the  driver. 

"  No,"  said  he,  "  we've  never  been  stopped  but  once. 
The  fact  is,  we  scarcely  ever  carry  anything  that  makes 
it  worth  while  for  anyone  to  stop  the  stage.  Early 
this  spring,  though,  my  partner  was  held  up  just  as 
he  was  coming  over  the  Bird  Tail  Divide.  There 
had  been  some  talk  of  sending  out  some  dust  from 
Benton  by  the  stage,  but  it  was  given  up  and  the  gold 
went  out  another  way.  Of  course  none  of  us  knew 
that  it  was  going,  but  the  news  must  have  got  out 
somehow,  for  that  night,  just  as  the  stage  reached 
the  top  of  the  Bird  Tail  Divide  and  the  two  leaders 
had  got  up  onto  the  level,  two  men  stepped  out  in 
the  moonlight  and  told  Buck — that's  my  partner — to 
stop.  He  started  to  lay  the  whip  on  his  horses,  but 
they  were  all  walking,  and  the  men  brought  down 
their  guns  and  called  to  him  again  that  if  he  started 
they'd  kill  the  leaders.  So  he  pulled  up  and  asked 
the  men  what  they  wanted,  and  they  said  they  wanted 
the  treasure  chest  and  told  him  to  throw  it  down.  He 
said  there  wasn't  any  treasure  chest,  and  if  they  didn't 


A  MEETING   OF   FRIENDS  15 

believe  him  they  could  come  and  search  the  coach. 
With  that  a  third  man  that  Buck  hadn't  seen  before 
popped  up  from  the  side  of  the  road  and  climbed 
up  and  looked  through  the  boot  and  searched  Buck, 
and  then  went  through  the  whole  stage.  They  were 
a  pretty  mad  lot  when  they  let  Buck  go  on." 

"  Was  it  ever  known  who  they  were?  " 

"  No,"  said  the  driver.  "  I  always  had  an  idea  that 
Buck  knew  who  the  little  fellow  was  that  searched 
the  stage,  but  as  they  didn't  get  anything  and  didn't 
bother  Buck  any,  I  reckon  he  didn't  want  to  say  much 
about  it." 

All  through  the  day  they  trotted  briskly  forward, 
changing  horses  at  regular  intervals,  so  that  the  teams 
were  always  fresh  and  progress  rapid.  They  had 
dinner  and  supper  at  the  stage  stations  which  they 
passed,  and  about  ten  o'clock  at  night  reached  Fort 
Shaw. 

By  this  time  both  Hugh  and  Jack  were  tired  and 
sleepy,  but  the  driver  seemed  as  fresh  as  ever. 

While  the  horses  were  being  changed,  Hugh  sat 
down  on  the  front  steps  of  the  building  and  smoked 
his  pipe,  and  Jack,  trying  to  get  the  sleep  out  of  his 
eyes,  walked  up  and  down  on  the  boardwalk.  As  he 
was  doing  this  he  was  joined  by  a  little  Irishman,  who 
conversed  pleasantly. 

"  Are  you  working  now  ?  "  said  the  little  man,  as 
he  puffed  at  his  short  pipe. 

"  No,"  said  Jack,  "  not  now.  I'm  just  going  up 
to  Benton." 

"Do  yez  want  work?"  asked  the  stranger.  "I 
need  a  couple  more  hands  on  me  ranch  down  below 
here  and  I'd  like  to  hire  yez.     Thirty  dollars  and 


16        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

board  is  what  I  pay;  good  wages  for  the  time  and 
for  the  country." 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  I'd  like  the  work  and  I'd  like 
the  money,  but  I'm  just  traveling  through  the  country 
and  I've  got  to  meet  a  man  in  Benton,  and  couldn't 
stop  now  to  take  even  a  good  job." 

"  Well,"  said  the  man,  "  I'm  sorry.  If  ever  yez 
come  through  Shaw  again,  maybe  ye'd  be  needin' 
work,  and  ye'd  better  come  to  my  place  and  see  if  I 
can't  give  yez  a  job.  Maloney  is  me  name,  on  Sun 
River,  five  miles  below  the  post." 

Jack  was  quite  tickled  at  this  offer,  and  when  they 
started  again,  told  Hugh  about  it. 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  you  are  getting  to  be  a  man 
now,  and  ought  to  be  able  to  do  a  man's  work,  and  I 
reckon  you  are." 

All  through  the  night  the  stage  rattled  and  swung 
over  the  prairie,  and  soon  after  the  sun  rose  the  next 
morning  trotted  swiftly  across  Benton  bottom  and 
drew  up  at  the  end  of  its  journey. 


CHAPTER    II 

HISTORIC    LAND 

"  There  are  some  friends  of  ours,"  said  Hugh,  as  the 
stage  approached  the  hotel,  and  he  raised  his  hand 
and  made  the  Indian  sign  to  attract  attention. 

"  Yes,"  said  Jack,  "  I  see  them.  There  is  Baptiste 
and  there's  Joe,  too.  It's  splendid  to  see  them  both 
again."  Jack  signaled  earnestly  and  made  the  sign 
for  shaking  hands,  to  which  his  two  friends  responded. 

As  the  stage  drew  up,  Hugh  said,  "  Now,  son,  you 
get  down  into  the  boot  and  haul  out  our  bags  and 
throw  them  to  me,"  and  when  Hugh  had  reached  the 
ground  Jack  passed  him  the  bags  and  then  sprang 
down  himself.  There  were  hearty  handshakes  and 
many  questions  between  the  four  delighted  friends, 
and  presently  Baptiste  said,  "  Casse-tete,  let  us  go 
now  to  my  cabane,  and  there  we  will  eat  and  smoke. 
I  have  many  things  to  ask  you." 

"  All  right,"  said  Hugh.  "  Just  wait  a  minute  till 
I  see  about  our  beds." 

In  the  meantime  Jack  and  Joe  had  engaged  in  a 
sort  of  war  dance,  followed  by  a  wrestling  match,  to 
express  their  joy  at  meeting  again,  and  then  Jack 
thought  of  the  beds  on  the  coach  and  ran  and  un- 
strapped the  leather  apron  which  covered  the  baggage 
rack,  and  the  two  boys,  loosening  the  lashings,  threw 
the  beds  on  the  ground  by  the  hotel  door. 

"  Hello,"  said  Husrh,   (<  those  boys  have  got  our 

17 


18        JACK,   THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

beds  off  now.  We  can  go  on.  Just  set  those  beds 
inside  the  office,  and  tell  the  clerk  we'll  stop  for  them 
with  the  wagon  when  we  start.  Then  come  on  to 
Bat's  cabin." 

Before  long  Hugh  and  Jack  were  seated  in  the 
cabin,  while  Baptiste  and  Joe  were  busily  engaged  in 
the  work  of  preparing  breakfast.  Soon  all  were  seated 
at  the  table.  The  fare  was  simple,  but  heartily  en- 
joyed, for  all  had  healthy  appetites  and  contented 
minds. 

"  How  are  you  getting  on,  Bat  ? "  said  Hugh. 
"  How  do  you  live  ?  Just  about  as  you  did  a  couple 
of  years  ago  ?  " 

"Yes,"  said  Baptiste;  "I  live  well;  I  always  have 
lived  well  since  you  and  these  boys  came  in  from  the 
north  and  made  me  that  fine  present  of  the  gold  that 
you  think  I  lost  many  years  ago.  Every  month  the 
bank  pays  me  my  money,  and  then  besides  I  work  a 
little  for  the  company  at  the  furs,  so  they  pay  me 
something,  and  I  have  some  money  that  I  can  spend. 
I  have  bought  me  two  horses,  and  sometimes  I  go  off 
on  a  hunt;  sometimes  I  trap  a  little.  It  is  not  much, 
but  it  is  pleasant;  it  brings  back  to  my  mind  the  old 
days.  Also,  my  mind  is  better  than  it  was.  I  do  not 
forget  things  as  I  used  to.  It  was  a  good  thing  for 
me  when  you  three  men  came  in  from  the  north  and 
found  me  here,  and  you  would  not  have  found  me 
except  for  the  charger  that  Jack  picked  up  on  the 
prairie." 

"  Doesn't  it  seem  wonderful  that  the  finding  of  that 
little  piece  of  metal  should  have  changed  a  man's  life 
as  yours  has  been  changed,  Baptiste?"  said  Jack. 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh ;  "  we,  none  of  us,  can  ever  tell 


HISTORIC  LAND  19 

what  influence  the  smallest  thing  we  do  will  have  on 
other  people.  Now,  Joe,"  he  went  on,  "  have  you  got 
a  team  here,  and  are  you  ready  to  take  us  out  to  the 
camp,  as  Mr.  Sturgis  wrote  you?" 

"  Yes,"  said  Joe,  "  the  team's  here  and  the  wagon, 
and  I  reckon  we  can  make  the  agency  in  three  or  four 
days  and  we  can  start  just  whenever  you  are  ready. 
I've  got  a  mess  outfit  and  some  coffee  and  sugar  and 
bacon  and  flour,  and  if  you  need  anything  more  we 
can  get  it  here.    I'm  ready  to  start  as  soon  as  you  are." 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh.  "  the  sooner  we  get  off  the 
better,  I  expect.     What  do  you  say,  son?" 

"  Why,"  replied  Jack,  "  you  can't  start  too  soon  for 
me.  I'm  anxious  to  get  to  the  camp,  and  then  into 
the  mountains.  I  always  feel  as  if  I  didn't  have  much 
time  out  here  anyhi  iw,  and  I  want  to  make  the  most 
of  what  I  have." 

"  Well,  then,"  said  Hugh,  as  they  pushed  back  their 
chairs  from  the  table,  "  let's  sit  down  and  smoke  a 
pipe  and  talk  for  a  little  while,  and  then  you  and  Jack 
can  go  and  get  the  team,  and  Bat  and  I  will  sit  here 
and  chew  the  rag  about  old  times  until  you  come  for 
us.  Get  the  beds  and  the  bags  when  you  come  by  the 
hotel,  and  then  we  can  pull  right  out.  I  reckon  Joe 
has  grub  enough  and  we  won't  have  to  buy  anything 
here  without  it  is  a  piece  of  fresh  meat.  We  might 
get  beef  enough  for  two  or  three  meals,  but  the 
weather  is  kind  o'  hot  now,  and  likely  there'll  be  a 
chance  to  get  meat  at  some  of  the  ranches  we  pass  if 
we  need  it." 

For  a  time  Hugh  and  Baptiste  sat  together  talking 
about  the  old  trapping  days,  bringing  up  one  after 
another  the  names  of  men  whom  they  had  known,  and 


20        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

relating  incidents  of  hunting,  trapping,  buffalo  chas- 
ing, and  Indian  fighting.  Jack  thought  it  was  good 
to  listen  to,  but  at  length  Hugh  turned  to  the  boys 
and  said,  "  Well,  go  on  now  and  get  your  wagon  and 
we'll  pull  out.  It's  a  long  ways  from  here  to  the 
agency,  and  every  hour  we  lose  on  this  end  we've  got 
to  make  up  on  the  other." 

The  boys  started  off  for  the  team,  leaving  the  old 
men  to  sit  in  the  sun  and  talk  about  the  past.  A  little 
later  the  wagon  drew  up  to  the  door,  and  Hugh,  after 
glancing  through  its  contents  and  tightening  one  of 
the  ropes  that  lashed  on  the  load,  said,  "  Well,  we  may 
as  well  be  going.  Good-by,  Bat;  we're  likely  to  get 
back  here  about  two  months  hence,  and  we'll  meet  then. 
I  reckon  up  in  the  camp  we'll  see  all  the  Monroes  and 
old  man  Choquette,  but  those  are  all  the  old-timers 
we're  likely  to  meet.  So  long,"  and  he  climbed  into 
the  wagon. 

"  Good-by,  Baptiste,"  said  Jack,  as  he  shook  hands, 
and  Joe,  reaching  down  from  the  driver's  seat,  pressed 
the  old  man's  hand  without  a  word. 

"  Good-by,  my  friends,  good-by,"  said  Baptiste. 
"  It  has  been  good  to  see  you.  Always  your  coming 
brings  joy  to  my  heart.  I  shall  look  for  you  to  come 
again." 

Joe  gathered  up  the  reins,  spoke  to  the  horses,  and 
in  a  moment  they  were  rattling  along  the  street  headed 
for  the  road  leading  up  the  Teton  River. 

It  was  a  beautiful  day.  The  air  was  cool  and  pleas- 
ant, yet  the  sun  shone  warm.  The  prairie  and  the 
distant  hills  were  still  green,  and  beautiful  flowers 
dotted  the  plain.  From  the  top  of  almost  every  sage 
brush  came  the  sweet,  mellow  whistle  of  the  meadow 


HISTORIC  LAND  21 

lark.  In  the  air  all  about  birds  were  rising  from 
the  ground,  singing  as  though  their  throats  would 
burst,  and  then  after  reaching  a  certain  height,  slowly 
floating  down  again  on  outspread  wings,  the  song 
ending  just  as  they  reached  the  ground. 

After  they  had  gone  a  short  distance  away  from  the 
town  the  country  seemed  as  lonely  as  the  wildest 
prairie.  Far  off,  here  and  there,  grazed  a  few  cattle 
or  horses.  Ahead  of  them  the  white,  level  road  wound 
about  among  the  bushes  of  the  sage.  To  Jack  it  was 
all  very  delightful.  The  change  from  the  crowded 
city  was  absolute,  and  as  he  looked  about  him  and 
enjoyed  his  surroundings  his  heart  seemed  to  swell 
within  his  breast,  and  he  felt  as  though  he  could  hardly 
speak. 

Presently  Joe  said  to  Hugh,  "  Have  you  plenty  of 
room,  White  Bull?  I  got  this  extra  wide  seat  before 
I  started  because  I  thought  we'd  all  want  to  sit  on 
one  seat,  but  I  don't  know  whether  it  gives  you  room 
enough." 

"  Oh,  yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  there's  lots  of  room  for  all 
of  us." 

4'  Yes,"  said  Jack,  "  we  could  pretty  nearly  put  an- 
other man  here." 

"  Now,  Joe,"  said  Hugh  a  little  later,  "  I  want  to 
ask  you  something  about  the  people.  I  heard  that 
two  years  ago,  and  maybe  last  year  also,  they  starved, 
and  that  many  of  them  died.  I  heard,  too,  that  even 
up  here  the  buffalo  have  all  gone." 

"  Yes,"  said  Joe,  "  that  is  true.  Two  years  ago 
and  also  last  year  the  people  starved,  but  it  was  two 
years  ago  that  the  most  of  them  died,  that  is,  one 
winter  back  from  this  winter  that  has  just  passed. 


22         JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

Old  Four  Bears  kept  a  kind  of  count  on  a  stick,  cut- 
ting a  notch  for  every  person  that  died,  and  they  say 
that  nearly  six  hundred  of  the  people  starved  to  death. 
There  was  no  food.  The  buffalo  had  not  been  seen 
for  two  winters.  The  people  had  hunted  and  some- 
times killed  an  elk  or  a  deer  or  a  few  antelope,  but 
at  last  these  had  all  been  killed,  and  there  was  left 
nothing  but  rabbits  and  such  birds  as  we  could  shoot 
or  snare.  It  was  a  hard  time ;  everybody  was  hungry. 
Everybody  got  poor.  Even  people  that  had  once  been 
heavy  and  had  much  fat  on  their  bodies  grew  lean 
and  thin.  When  you  looked  at  the  old  people,  the 
women  and  the  children,  you  could  see  their  bones 
sticking  out  against  the  skin.  The  little  children  and 
the  old  people  were  the  ones  that  died.  The  men  and 
the  women  were  very  hungry  and  got  weak,  but  they 
did  not  die.  White  Calf,  who  is  now  the  chief,  asked 
the  agent  to  give  us  what  food  there  was  in  the  store- 
house and  let  us  have  one  good  meal  and  then  die, 
but  the  agent  would  not  do  it.  He  told  us  to  go  out 
and  kill  food  for  ourselves.  You  know  Father 
Prando  ?  "     Hugh  nodded. 

"  Well,  he  had  seen  for  a  long  time  what  was  com- 
ing and  he  had  written  to  people  back  East,  asking 
that  food  might  be  sent  out  to  us,  and  telling  them 
that  unless  it  was  sent  we  should  all  starve  to  death. 
Besides  that,  he  wrote  to  the  commanding  officer  at 
Fort  Shaw,  and  during  the  winter  an  officer  was  sent 
up  to  the  agency  to  see  how  the  people  were  getting 
on.  This  officer  came  and  went  around  through  the 
camp,  and  asked  the  people  to  tell  him  the  truth.  He 
didn't  have  to  ask  many  questions;  he  had  eyes  and 
could  see  for  himself.     They  tell  me  that  in  some  of 


HISTORIC  LAXD  23 

the  lodges  that  officer  sat  and  cried ;  that  the  tears  ran 
down  his  face  as  they  do  down  the  face  of  a  woman 
whose  child  has  just  died. 

"  After  a  while  he  went  away,  and  we  heard  noth- 
ing more,  but  presently  the  news  came  that  wagons 
loaded  with  food  were  coming  from  Fort  Shaw,  and 
then  a  little  while  after  that  came  a  government  in- 
spector who  asked  many  questions  and  removed  the 
agent  and  stopped  here.  This  inspector  was  a  good 
man,  I  think.  He  kept  sending  messages  to  Fort 
Shaw  and  trying  to  hurry  the  food  along,  and  they 
say  that  he  sent  telegrams  to  Washington.  Anyhow, 
about  the  end  of  the  winter  wagons  began  to  come 
loaded  with  flour  and  bacon,  and  this  was  given  out 
to  the  people,  and  then  the  suffering  stopped,  and  the 
people  stopped  dying.  After  a  little  while,  too,  we 
got  a  new  agent,  a  good  man,  who  seems  to  be  trying 
to  help  the  people.  He  taught  them  how  to  plow 
the  ground  and  to  put  seed  into  it.  Maybe  that  is 
good.  The  seed  grew,  but  it  did  not  get  ripe.  We 
had  plenty  of  oat  straw,  but  no  oats;  but  ever  since 
the  food  began  to  come  a  year  ago  last  winter  we  have 
been  doing  better." 

"  Well,  well,  that's  a  hard  story,"  said  Hugh. 
"  How  did  it  come  that  there  was  not  food  enough 
in  the  warehouses  to  help  the  people  along?" 

"  I  heard  two  of  the  white  men  that  have  married 
into  the  tribe  talking,"  said  Joe,  "  and  they  said  that 
the  agent  had  been  writing  to  Washington  that  the 
Indians  were  doing  well  and  were  growing  crops  and 
becoming  civilized.  They  said  that  he  wrote  those 
things  so  that  the  people  at  Washington  would  think 
that  he  was  a  great  man  and  was  helping  the  Indians 


24         JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

along.  Of  course  the  people  never  grew  any  crops; 
they  didn't  know  how.  They  lived  well  enough  as 
long  as  there  were  buffalo,  but  when  the  buffalo  went 
away,  then  the  people  had  nothing  to  depend  on." 

"  You  say  nearly  six  hundred  died  ?  "  asked  Hugh. 

"  That  is  what  they  told  me,"  replied  Joe. 

"  Good  Lord,"  said  Hugh,  "  that  was  about  one- 
fourth  of  the  people.  I  don't  suppose  there  was  more 
than  twenty-five  hundred  or  three  thousand  Piegans 
at  best." 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  Joe,  "  how  many  there  were, 
but  I  know  that  many  died.  You  can  see  their  bodies 
in  all  the  trees  along  the  creeks." 

"  But,  Hugh,"  said  Jack,  "  how  is  it  possible  that 
such  a  thing  should  occur?  Why  didn't  the  people 
back  East  know  about  this  suffering  and  send  food 
out  to  relieve  it  ?  " 

"  Well,  son,"  said  Hugh,  "  you  know  it's  an  awful 
long  way  from  here  back  East,  and  then  it's  hard  al- 
ways to  get  at  the  truth  about  any  of  these  stories. 
An  Indian  reservation  is  a  great  place  for  getting  up 
kicks  and  complaints,  and  I  suppose  that  maybe  those 
people  in  Washington  are  so  used  to  hearing  com- 
plaints that  they  don't  pay  much  attention  to  them." 

"  But  just  think,"  said  Jack,  "  of  six  hundred  peo- 
ple being  starved  to  death.  It's  almost  impossible  to 
believe  it." 

"  I  reckon,"  said  Hugh,  "  that  we'll  find  a  good 
many  of  our  old  friends  dead  when  we  get  to  the 
camp." 

"  Yes,"  said  Joe,  "  a  good  many." 

All  day  long  the  horses  trotted  briskly  up  the  level 
road  along  the  Teton  River.    The  sun  was  hot,  but  a 


HISTORIC  LAND  25 

cool  breeze  blew  down  from  the  mountains  to  the 
west  and  the  whole  country  was  fresh,  green,  and 
charming.  About  three  o'clock  they  camped  on  the 
river  at  the  edge  of  a  grove  of  cottonwood  trees,  and 
unhitching  the  horses,  Joe  and  Jack  picketed  them  on 
the  fresh  green  grass.  Hugh,  meanwhile,  had  brought 
some  wood  and  built  the  campfire,  and  before  long 
supper  was  ready. 

As  they  sat  about  after  eating,  Hugh  smoking  his 
pipe,  the  boys  lounging  in  the  warm  sunshine,  and 
all  watching  the  sun  as  it  sank  toward  the  west,  and 
the  shadows  of  the  cottonwoods  grow  longer  minute 
by  minute,  Hugh  said  to  Jack,  "  We  were  talking  this 
morning,  son,  about  the  hard  times  the  Piegans  have 
had  this  winter,  and  that  brought  to  my  mind  an- 
other hard  time  that  they  had  a  good  many  years 
ago." 

"What  was  that,  Hugh?"  said  Jack,  sitting  up  to 
listen,  while  Joe,  who  had  been  lying  on  his  back  with 
his  eyes  shut,  rolled  over  so  that  he  faced  the  old  man. 

"  Did  you  ever  hear  of  the  Baker  massacre?  "  asked 
Hugh. 

"  No,"  said  Jack,  "  I  never  did." 

"  I  did,"  said  Joe.  "  My  father  was  killed  that 
time.  I  don't  remember  anything  about  it.  I  was 
too  little.  Only  I  remember  my  mother,  how  she 
cried." 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  lots  of  people  cried  that  time." 

"  Tell  us  about  it,"  said  Jack. 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  it's  quite  a  long  story  and 
it  made  quite  a  fuss  in  its  time,  not  so  much  among 
the  white  folks  out  here  as  among  the  Indians  and,  as 
I've  heard,  among  white  people  back  East.     It  cer- 


26        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

tainly  was  a  bad  killing.  You  read  in  the  books 
about  the  way  Indians  massacre  white  women  and 
children  when  they're  on  the  warpath,  but  I  reckon 
Indians  never  did  anything  worse  than  this  killing  at 
the  Baker  massacre.  The  way  the  white  men  killed 
and  cut  up  the  Cheyenne  and  Arapahoe  women  and 
children  at  Sand  Creek  down  in  Colorado,  and  the  way 
they  killed  women  and  children  up  here  on  the  Ma- 
rias, no  Indians  could  ever  beat." 

Hugh  paused,  and  looked  around  for  a  twig  wTith 
which  to  push  down  the  fire  in  his  pipe. 

"  I've  heard  about  the  Sand  Creek  massacre,  Hugh," 
said  Jack,  "  though  I  never  heard  the  whole  story. 
Some  day  I'm  going  to  get  you  to  tell  me  that;  but 
what  was  the  Baker  massacre?  " 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  along  in  '66-67,  and  from 
that  time  up  to  1870,  this  country  up  here  in  Mon- 
tana was  run  over  by  a  whole  lot  of  different  Indian 
tribes.  Of  course  it  was  Piegan  country,  and  with 
the  Piegans  were  the  Blackfeet  and  Bloods,  and  a 
part  of  the  time  the  Gros  Ventres  of  the  prairie.  They 
were  all  on  good  terms  with  each  other  after  the  Gros 
Ventres  made  peace  with  the  Piegans  along  about 
1868.  Besides  these,  there  were  the  Crows,  who  were 
hostile  to  the  Blackfeet,  and  every  now  and  then  the 
Kootenays  would  come  over  the  mountains  and  have 
a  scrap,  and  the  Crees  would  come  down  from  the 
north  and  steal  Piegan  horses,  and  Assinaboines  and 
other  Sioux  would  come  up  from  the  east  and  they'd 
tackle  the  Blackfeet.  Pretty  nearly  any  of  these  In- 
dians, if  they  saw  a  chance  to  run  off  some  stock  or 
to  kill  a  lone  white  man  would  do  it,  but  the  Piegans, 
being  close  at  home  and  always  within  reach,  got  the 


HISTORIC  LAND  27 

credit  of  most  of  the  deviltry  that  was  done.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  I  reckon  it  was  the  Sioux  and  Assina- 
boines  that  did  most  of  it.  Anyhow,  the  trappers  and 
traders  and  freighters  in  the  country,  and  there  were 
quite  a  number  of  them,  got  to  thinking  that  the 
Piegans  made  all  the  trouble.  I  reckon  that  the  Bloods 
from  the  north,  and  sometimes  a  band  of  Blackfeet 
coming  down  to  visit  the  Piegans,  did  considerable 
horse  stealing,  and  maybe  they  killed  a  few  white 
men. 

"  Along  about  that  time,  too,  Malcolm  Clark  took 
it  into  his  head  to  pound  up  a  young  Piegan  and  gave 
him  a  terrible  beating,  and  this  young  Piegan,  who 
was  a  brother  of  Clark's  wife,  went  off  and  got  a 
party  of  his  friends  and  went  back  and  killed  Clark. 
Meantime  all  the  Piegans  were  camping  in  their  coun- 
try as  usual  and  were  passing  back  and  forth,  going 
into  Benton  and  not  looking  for  any  trouble  at  all ; 
but  some  of  the  toughs  in  Benton,  whose  names  I  won't 
mention,  because  you  may  meet  some  of  them,  took 
an  old  Piegan,  a  beaver  trapper  and  a  good  old  man, 
and  killed  him  and  threw  him  into  the  river;  and  an- 
other man  took  out  a  young  boy,  considerably  younger 
than  you  are,  and  just  shot  him  down  in  the  street.  A 
lot  of  false  reports  were  sent  back  East  about  what 
the  Indians  had  been  doing,  and  the  result  was  that 
Colonel  Baker  was  ordered  to  march  against  a  certain 
village  of  Indians  who  were  camping  up  here  on  the 
Marias,  north  of  where  we  are  now  and  about  forty 
miles  from  Benton.  The  troops  were  guided  by  two 
men  who  are  now  living  on  the  Piegan  reservation, 
each  of  them  married  to  an  Indian  woman.  The 
orders  given  to  Colonel  Baker  were  to  strike  Moun- 


28        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

tain  Chief's  band  of  Piegans,  because  from  some  in- 
formation they  had  it  was  supposed  that  these  people 
had  been  plundering  and  perhaps  killing  white  people. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  village  found  by  the  troops 
was  that  of  Red  Horn  and  Bear  Chief.  The  camp 
consisted  of  less  than  forty  lodges,  and  probably  had 
in  it  a  little  more  than  two  hundred  people.  The 
troops  got  up  close  to  the  village  in  the  gray  of  the 
morning,  without  being  seen,  and  their  orders  were 
to  shoot  to  kill  when  they  fired.  There  were  but  few 
people  stirring  when  the  first  volley  was  fired.  They 
were  all  killed,  and  then  the  people  began  to  stream 
out  of  the  lodges.  At  once  they  saw  that  they  were 
being  attacked  by  troops,  and  thought  that  it  was  a 
mistake.  Bear  Chief,  unarmed,  rushed  toward  the 
soldiers  holding  up  a  paper  given  him  by  some  white 
man,  but  before  he  got  to  the  soldiers  he  fell,  with 
half  a  dozen  bullets  through  him.  The  women  and 
children  were  killed  just  as  the  men  were,  and  of  all 
the  village  only  about  forty-five  got  away,  and  some 
of  these  were  off  hunting  and  were  not  there  when 
the  attack  was  made.  There  were  a  hundred  and 
seventy-six  Indians  killed,  thirty-seven  of  them  men, 
ninety  women,  and  about  fifty  children. 

"  There  was  no  pretense  of  a  defense  by  the  In- 
dians. They  didn't  fight  at  all.  They  were  just  shot 
down  until  the  troops  got  tired  of  shooting.  The  In- 
dians have  told  me  that  most  of  the  thirty-seven  men 
that  were  killed  were  old  men  and  young  boys.  As 
if  to  make  it  a  little  rougher  on  the  Indians,  there  was 
smallpox  in  the  camp  at  the  time. 

"  You'll  see  old  Almost-a-Dog  up  at  the  agency,  and 
if  you  shake  hands  with  him  you'll  notice  that  his  hand 


HISTORIC  LAND  29 

is  crooked.  He  got  that  wound  at  the  Baker  mas- 
sacre." 

"  Why,  Hugh,  that's  one  of  the  most  terrible  things 
I  ever  heard  of,"  said  Jack.  "  A  hundred  and  seventy- 
six  killed,  and  out  of  that  a  hundred  and  forty  women 
and  little  children!  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  it  always  seemed  to  me  pretty 
bad.  Of  course,  when  men  go  to  war  or  try  to  steal 
horses  or  do  anything  of  that  kind  they  take  all  the 
chances  that  there  are.  It's  all  right  to  kill  them  if 
you  can,  but  how  anybody  that's  got  any  sense  can 
shoot  down  women  and  children  the  way  that  man 
Baker  did  gets  away  with  me. 

41  Well,"  he  went  on,  "  after  a  while  the  news  of 
this  massacre  drifted  East,  and  I  heard  that  the  news- 
papers took  it  up  and  told  the  truth  about  it,  and  I 
reckon  the  army  officers  most  concerned  in  it  got 
called  a  good  many  names.  I've  heard  that  Colonel 
Baker  lost  his  chance  of  ever  getting  very  high  up  in 
the  army  on  account  of  this  fight,  and  yet  he  only  did 
just  what  he  was  ordered  to  do." 

"  That  certainly  was  terribly  cruel,"  said  Jack,  "  and 
I  don't  see  how  it  could  be  excused." 

"  Joe,"  said  Hugh,  turning  to  the  Indian,  who  had 
said  nothing,  but  still  lay  on  the  grass  with  his  head 
resting  on  his  hand,  "  were  you  in  that  camp,  or  were 
you  somewhere  else?" 

"  No,"  said  Joe,  "  I  was  not  in  that  camp.  My 
mother  was  and  a  little  sister  and  my  father,  but  I 
was  at  Three  Sun's  Village,  stopping  with  my  aunt. 
I  must  have  been  about  three  or  four  years  old  at  that 
time." 

"  Of  the  people  left  alive  out  of  that  village,"  Hugh 


30        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

went  on,  "  there  were  nearly  forty  who  were  women 
and  little  bits  of  children.  They  were  turned  loose  on 
the  prairie — some  of  them  being  sick  with  the  small- 
pox, you  will  remember — on  the  twenty-third  of  Jan- 
uary. Anybody  who  knows  what  winter  weather  is  up 
here  in  Montana  can  tell  what  that  means.  It's  a 
wonder  that  any  of  them  lived  to  get  to  a  camp  where 
they  were  looked  after." 

Hugh's  story  had  taken  some  time  in  the  telling, 
and  by  the  time  he  had  finished  it  was  quite  dark.  Jack 
and  Joe  got  up  and  went  out  to  where  the  horses  were 
and  changed  them  to  fresh  grass,  and  on  their  way 
back  brought  the  beds  from  the  wagon  and  threw 
them  down  close  to  the  fire.  Hugh  meanwhile  had 
put  fresh  wood  on  it  and  the  cheerful  blaze  lit  up  the 
white  trunks  of  the  cottonwoods  and  was  reflected  on 
the  leaves  above.  It  was  a  beautiful  night,  and  the 
three  spread  their  beds  near  the  fire  and  were  soon 
asleep. 


CHAPTER    III 

THE    BLACKFOOT    AGENCY 

The  next  morning  they  were  early  on  their  way,  and 
by  noon  readied  the  home  of  a  Canadian  Frenchman, 
formerly  in  the  service  of  the  American  Fur  Company, 
but  now  living  on  his  little  ranch  on  the  Teton  with 
his  Indian  wife  and  a  numerous  brood  of  half-breed 
children. 

From  here  they  kept  on  up-stream,  until  just  before 
night  they  came  to  another  ranch,  on  the  Pend 
d'Oreille  coulee,  where  lived  a  man  whom  Hugh  and 
Joe  botli  addressed  as  Froggy,  also  married  to  an 
Indian  woman. 

Just  before  dark  Jack  was  greatly  interested  in  see- 
ing a  procession  of  five  pin-tailed  ducks  walking  sol- 
emnly from  a  little  slough  to  the  house.  When  they 
reached  it  the  woman  drove  them  into  a  little  coop 
built  of  short  logs,  and  closing  the  door,  fastened  it 
with  a  pin. 

"Where  did  you  get  your  ducks,  Froggy?"  asked 
Joe. 

"  Oh,"  answered  Froggy,  "  I  found  a  nest  out  on 
the  prairie  at  the  edge  of  the  slough  and  watched  it 
until  the  young  ones  hatched  and  then  got  them  and 
brought  them  in  and  raised  them.  I  did  have  nine, 
but  the  coyotes  and  foxes  got  away  with  all  but  these 
five.  Xow  I've  got  'em  trained  so  that  they  come 
up  every  night,  and  I  shut  them  up  in  the  house  where 
they'll  be  safe." 

3i 


32        JACK,   THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

Shortly  after  they  had  started  next  morning  Jack 
asked  Hugh  some  questions  about  Froggy.  It  ap- 
peared that  he  had  come  into  the  country  twelve  or 
fifteen  years  before  and  had  worked  first  as  a  laborer 
and  afterward  as  a  clerk  for  small  individual  traders. 

"  They  say/'  put  in  Joe,  "  that  he  has  killed  two 
or  three  men  for  their  money." 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  heard  something  about  that, 
but  nobody  that  ever  talked  to  me  about  it  really 
seemed  to  know  anything." 

"  No,"  said  Joe,  "  I  reckon  they  never  could  prove 
anything  against  him.  Twice  men  who  were  traveling 
through  the  country  and  were  supposed  to  have  money 
disappeared  on  this  road  and  nobody  ever  knew  what 
became  of  them.  Each  time  Froggy  said  that  they 
stopped  at  his  house  over  night  and  then  started  on 
in  the  morning,  but  they  never  were  seen  again." 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  we  don't  know  anything 
about  that." 

"  Hugh,"  said  Jack,  "  I've  been  a  good  deal  in  the 
Western  country  and  I'm  not  a  pilgrim  any  longer, 
but  isn't  something  going  to  happen  to  Froggy  some 
of  these  days?  " 

"  Why,  yes,  son,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  reckon  some  day 
that  somebody  will  up  and  kill  Froggy,  and  then  the 
country  will  be  better  off;  but  it  isn't  your  funeral 
nor  yet  mine,  and  we  donTt  want  to  mix  up  with 
things  that  don't  concern  us  at  all." 

"  No,  Hugh,  of  course,  you're  right,  but  it  does 
seem  as  if  the  world  and  the  territory  would  be  better 
off  if  Froggy  did  not  live  here." 

"  Maybe,  maybe,"  said  Hugh,  "  but,  as  I  say,  it 
isn't  your  business  nor  yet  mine." 


THE   BLACKFOOT    AGENCY  33 

That  night  they  camped  on  Dupuyer  Creek,  and 
Hugh  and  Joe  said  that  to-morrow  they  would  be  at 
the  agency. 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  I'll  be  glad  to  get  there.  It's 
queer,  isn't  it,  the  number  of  times  I've  been  up  here 
and  camped  with  these  Piegans  that  I've  never  seen 
their  agency,  the  place  which  is  really  their  home?  " 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  it  really  has  not  been  their 
home  very  long,  only  since  the  buffalo  gave  out.  Be- 
fore that  they  only  came  in  once  in  a  while,  but  not 
long  before  they  saw  the  last  of  the  buffalo  the  Gov- 
ernment sent  out  troops  to  bring  them  in  and  tell  them 
that  they  must  stay  at  the  agency. 

"  That's  one  reason,  I  reckon,  that  they  starved,  as 
Joe  was  telling  us  the  other  night.  If  it  hadn't  been 
that  the  troops  kept  them  there,  I  believe  they'd  all 
have  gone  up  north  into  Canada  and  have  tried  to 
make  the  two  other  tribes,  the  Blackfeet  and  the 
Bloods,  give  them  help.  I  don't  know  what  help  they 
could  have  given  them,  because  those  people  up  there 
must  be  just  as  poor  as  these  down  here.  They  all  de- 
pended on  the  buffalo  and  they  had  nothing  else. 
None  of  them  have  any  idea  of  farming,  and  of  course 
none  of  them  have  any  cattle." 

"  But,  Hugh,"  said  Jack,  "  what  are  they  going  to 
do  now  ?  The  buffalo  won't  come  back ;  how  are  they 
going  to  live  ?  " 

"  Why,"  said  Hugh,  "  the  only  way  they  can  live 
is  for  the  Government  to  support  them,  to  send  them 
out  beef  and  flour  and  bacon.  They've  got  to  be  fed 
until  they  learn  to  do  something  for  themselves,  either 
to  raise  crops  or  raise  cattle,  or  get  jobs  as  hands  on 
the  steamboats  or  as  hands  for  the  ranchmen ;  but,  of 


34        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

course,  there  are  not  enough  ranchmen  in  the  country 
to  hire  even  a  small  part  of  the  able-bodied  men  among 
the  Piegans." 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  they  have  a  pretty  melancholy 
outlook,  haven't  they  ?  " 

"  They  have,  it's  true,"  Hugh  answered.  "  At  the 
same  time,"  he  went  on,  "  some  of  those  men  are 
pretty  industrious  and  have  a  pretty  good  idea  of 
work,  if  they  only  knew  how,  but  as  yet  they  don't 
know  anything.  Joe  says  though — you  heard  him  the 
other  night — that  they  were  trying  to  learn  to  farm,  but 
this  country  up  here  is  so  cold  that  I  don't  think  they 
can  ever  do  anything  with  crops.  There  are  a  few 
warm  spots  where  crops  might  ripen,  but  they  are  very 
few." 

About  noon  the  next  day  they  drove  down  into  the 
valley  of  a  little  stream  running  from  the  west,  and 
Joe  stopped  his  horses  so  that  they  might  drink. 

"  Well,  friend,"  he  said  to  Jack,  "  when  we  cross 
this  creek  we  shall  be  on  the  reservation.  The  Indians 
have  their  camps  and  their  cabins  up  and  down  this 
stream,  and  from  here  on,  wherever  there  is  a  creek, 
there  we  will  see  the  Indians  camped.  It  is  only  about 
eight  miles  from  here  to  the  Agency." 

Most  of  the  way  was  uphill,  however,  and  it  was 
well  on  in  the  afternoon  before  the  road  passed  over 
the  high  bluff,  and  at  a  distance  they  saw  the  agency 
buildings.  These  looked  gray  and  inconspicuous,  set 
down  in  the  midst  of  a  wide  flat,  through  which  flowed 
a  stream  bordered  by  willows,  with  a  few  tall  cotton- 
wood  trees.  As  they  drew  nearer,  the  buildings 
seemed  to  Jack  to  increase  in  size,  and  presently  they 
stopped  at  the  little  one-story  trading  post,  a  hundred 


THE    BLACKFOOT    AGENCY  35 

yards  below  the  Agency,  that  now  looked  like  rather 
an  imposing  edifice.  From  here  Jack  could  see  only 
the  stockade,  about  sixteen  feet  in  height  and  built  of 
cottonwood  logs,  which  concealed  all  the  Agency 
buildings  behind  its  walls. 

At  the  store  they  were  warmly  welcomed  by  Joe 
Bruce  and  his  assistant,  Mr.  McGonigle.  Bruce  was, 
and  long  had  been,  one  of  the  characters  of  the  upper 
Missouri  country.  He  was  then  only  about  thirty-six 
years  old,  smooth-shaven,  keen-eyed,  thin  and  wiry. 
Hugh  had  often  spoken  to  Jack  about  him  and  Jack 
looked  at  him  with  great  interest.  He  was  the  son  of 
James  Bruce,  who  was  an  important  figure  in  the  fur 
trade  of  the  Upper  Missouri  and  long  in  charge  of 
Fort  Union  at  the  junction  of  the  Missouri  and  Yellow- 
stone Rivers,  and  later  of  Fort  McKenzie  and  Fort 
Brule,  not  far  from  where  Fort  Benton  was  built  later. 

Bruce's  mother  was  a  Mandan,  and,  as  Jack  learned 
a  little  later,  lived  with  her  son  at  the  Piegan  agency. 

Mr.  McGonigle  was  a  Georgian,  an  old  Confederate 
soldier  who  had  come  West  "  with  the  left  wing  of 
Price's  army,''  as  the  saying  used  to  be  in  Montana. 
Of  the  great  number  of  Southerners  that  came  into 
Montana  in  1862  and  '65  it  was  said  in  joke  that 
when  Price's  army  was  defeated  in  Missouri  in  the 
early  part  of  the  war,  the  left  wing  got  separated  from 
the  others  and  started  westward,  and  never  stopped 
until  it  reached  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Mr.  McGonigle 
had  spent  some  years  as  a  prospector,  but  after  having 
made  and  lost  several  small  fortunes,  at  last  became 
a  trader's  clerk,  which  he  had  now  been  for  many 
years. 

After  a  brief  chat  with  Joe  Bruce,  arrangements 


36        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

were  made  to  spread  their  beds  for  a  night  or  two  in 
one  of  his  empty  buildings,  and  to  live  at  his  mess  until 
they  started  on  their  way  again.  Joe,  whose  people 
were  camped  on  another  creek  further  to  the  north- 
ward, was  to  remain  at  the  Agency  for  two  or  three 
days,  and  then  the  whole  party  would  start  for  St. 
Mary's  Lakes. 

While  Hugh  was  talking  with  Bruce,  Jack  chatted 
for  a  while  with  Mr.  McGonigle,  but  he  was  anxious 
to  go  up  to  the  Agency  and  to  get  inside  that  gray 
barrier  of  logs  behind  which  were  hidden  many  inter- 
esting people  and  things. 

Presently  Hugh  filled  his  pipe,  and  after  lighting  it, 
rose  and  said,  "  Well,  son,  let's  go  on  up  to  the  Agency 
and  see  the  agent,  and  look  around  and  see  if  we  can 
meet  any  of  our  friends." 

"  All  right,  Hugh,  come  on,"  said  Jack,  and  they 
set  out. 

They  soon  reached  the  stockade  and  entered  the 
wide  plank  gate,  which  was  still  in  good  condition  and 
bore  signs  of  being  frequently  used.  On  either  side 
of  the  gate  there  were  small  log  buildings,  each 
with  a  small  window,  which  looked  as  if  they  had  been 
built  there  for  purposes  of  defense;  probably,  how- 
ever, they  were  built  only  in  imitation  of  the  store  and 
warehouse  buildings  that  formerly  flanked  the  gates  of 
all  old  fur-trading  posts.  Once  within  the  stockade, 
they  could  see  the  quarters  for  the  employees,  a  ware- 
house, a  schoolhouse  in  which  were  gathered  ten  or 
fifteen  children,  and  some  other  buildings ;  while  in  the 
center  of  the  stockade  stood  the  house  occupied  by  the 
agent. 

In  this  house  they  found  Major  Allen,  who  wel- 


THE    BLACKFOOT    AGENCY  37 

corned  them  cordially,  and  in  response  to  inquiries  by 
Hugh  told  them  something  of  the  terrible  conditions 
that  he  had  found  when  he  had  reached  there  a  year 
or  more  before  and  had  first  met  his  starving  people. 
He  talked  with  much  feeling  about  their  sufferings 
and  the  heroic  way  in  which  they  had  borne  them, 
and  while  he  said  nothing  in  definite  terms  about 
his  predecessor,  what  his  words  suggested  made  Jack's 
blood  boil  with  indignation.  Major  Allen  asked  Hugh 
and  the  boys  to  slay  at  the  Agency  as  long  as  they 
liked,  and  said  that  he  would  like  to  have  them  see 
the  Indians  at  work. 

When  Hugh  and  Jack  went  up  to  the  Agency  the 
next  morning  they  saw  in  the  field  just  below  the 
stockade  a  number  of  Indians  standing  about  a  team 
of  horses,  and  as  they  drew  nearer  they  could  see  that 
Major  Allen  was  giving  instructions  in  the  art  of 
plowing  to  some  of  the  people.  When  they  reached 
the  group,  they  were  busy  for  some  time  shaking 
hands  with  old  friends,  whom  they  had  known  under 
far  different  circumstances,  but  after  the  first  saluta- 
tions  all  turned  to  watch  the  work. 

A  half  breed  was  driving  the  team  hitched  to  a 
plow,  and  the  agent  was  trying  to  teach  the  Indians 
to  hold  the  plow  so  as  to  turn  a  straight  furrow.  It 
was  new  and  not  easy  work  for  the  red  men. 
The  handles  of  the  plow  jerked  from  side  to  side,  the 
point  either  coming  out  of  the  ground  or  plunging  so 
deeply  into  it  that  the  man  holding  the  handles  was  in 
danger  of  being  thrown  forward  on  his  head.  Then 
Major  Allen  would  take  the  plow  and  holding  it 
steadily  would  cut  a  smooth  furrow  of  even  depth. 

Old  White  Calf,  the  chief,  was  anxious  to  learn 


38         JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

plowing.  He  took  hold  of  the  handles  and,  although 
at  first  the  plow  wobbled  from  side  to  side  and  more 
than  once  one  of  the  handles  struck  him  viciously  in 
the  ribs,  he  cut  a  fair  furrow  for  six  or  eight  feet. 
Then,  however,  the  point  ran  deep  into  the  ground, 
and  the  old  man  was  thrown  forward  and  nearly  fell 
down.  Meanwhile,  the  Indians  who  were  looking  on 
were  making  jocular  remarks  and  poking  fun  at  the 
man  who  happened  to  be  plowing,  but  he — after  he  had 
performed  his  small  stint — had  his  revenge  by  making 
fun  of  the  next  victim. 

After  he  had  watched  them  for  a  little  while  and 
enjoyed  the  fun,  Jack  had  a  chance  to  look  on  a  scene 
picturesque  and  beautiful.  The  wide  valley  stretched 
before  him  with  bluffs  rising  in  terraces  one  after  an- 
other, the  bright  green  of  the  willows  and  cotton- 
woods  marking  the  course  of  the  stream;  to  the  west 
the  mountains  with  their  clear-cut  outlines  sharply 
defined  against  the  blue  sky;  the  gray  stockade  stood 
near  at  hand,  and  farther  off  the  conical  white  lodges 
of  the  Piegans  up  and  down  the  creek,  with  here  and 
there  a  low  log  cabin.  Outside  the  fence  Indians 
passed  to  and  fro,  some  of  them  on  foot,  others  on 
horseback,  and  their  bright-colored  blankets,  beaded 
belts  and  knife  sheaths  gave  life  and  color  to  the 
picture. 

For  some  time  the  work  went  on,  and  then  the 
Major  asked  Hugh  and  Jack  to  come  up  to  his  house, 
where  they  talked  over  the  Indians  and  the  new  prob- 
lems which  they  had  to  face. 

"  It's  interesting  work  looking  after  these  people, 
but  it's  discouraging,  too,"  said  Major  Allen.  "  The 
Indians  are  willing  to  work,  but  they  haven't  any  idea 


THE    BLACKFOOT    AGENCY  3^ 

how  to  perform  the  tasks  we  set  them,  so  that  their 
efforts  are  ineffective,  and  they  easily  become  discour- 
aged. They  have  never  been  used  to  handling  horses 
hitched  to  wagons,  and  they  don't  know  at  all  what 
horses  can  do.  They  hitch  these  little  riding  ponies 
of  theirs  to  a  big  wagon  and  then  pile  it  up  with  much 
more  of  a  load  than  the  horses  can  haul,  and  whip  up 
the  team,  which  strains  and  tugs  along  for  a  short 
distance,  but  presently  gives  out,  and  the  wagon  has 
to  be  unloaded  or  else  another  pair  or  two  of  horses 
must  be  attached  to  it. 

"  The  Indians  are  as  willing  as  can  be  and  they  are 
not  afraid  of  work,  but  they  don't  like  to  keep  at  it  for 
a  long  time.  They  are  absolutely  ignorant  of  all 
farming  matters  and  it  will  take  them  some  time  to 
learn.  Last  summer  some  of  them  planted  little  gar- 
dens, but  they  treated  them  as  children  would.  For 
example,  they  often  dug  up  their  potatoes  to  see  how 
fast  they  were  growing,  and  as  soon  as  they  grew  large 
enough  to  eat  they  tried  to  sell  them,  although  if  they 
had  left  them  in  the  ground  they  would  have  continued 
to  grow  for  a  month  longer.  Xow  that  the  Indians 
have  teams  and  are  beginning  to  learn  something 
about  how  to  use  them,  they  drive  up  to  the  moun- 
tains and  cut  wood  and  haul  it  down,  either  to  sell  or 
to  use  themselves  in  winter.  Some  of  them  have  built 
good  log  cabins  in  which  they  pass  the  winter,  but 
of  course  in  summer  they  prefer  to  live  in  their 
lodges." 

"  Well,  Major,"  said  Hugh,  "  you  can  hardly  expect 
these  Indians,  who  all  their  lives  have  been  chasing 
buffalo,  to  take  hold  of  work  at  once." 

"  No,"  said  the  Major,  "  that  can't  be  expected,  and 


40        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

I  don't  look  for  it.  I  am  very  well  satisfied  with  the 
way  they  have  taken  hold.  They're  willing  and  they 
seem  honest." 

"  Yes,  I  think  so/'  said  Hugh,  "  and  from  what  I 
can  hear  they've  had  such  a  hard  time  that  I  think 
they're  really  in  earnest  in  their  wish  to  learn  how  to 
work." 

"Their  loyalty,"  said  the  Major,  "is  one  of  the 
things  that  has  struck  me  the  most.  The  policemen 
are  absolutely  faithful.  When  I  enlist  them,  I  make 
them  take  an  oath,  explaining  that  everybody  who 
serves  the  Government  has  to  be  sworn  in,  and  that 
they  must  do  as  all  the  other  public  servants.  They 
take  an  oath  which  I  like,  though  perhaps  not  a  very 
ceremonial  one;  still  they  take  it  as  if  they  meant  it, 
and  I  believe  they  do.  Have  you  ever  heard  them 
make  this  oath,  Mr.  Johnson?" 

"No,"  said  Hugh,  "I  don't  reckon  I  have.  I 
would  like  to  hear  it,  and  so  would  son  here.  What 
is  it?" 

"  When  they  are  sworn,"  said  Major  Allen,  "  they 
lift  up  the  right  hand  and,  stretching  it  toward  the 
sky,  say,  '  The  sun  is  good,'  and  then,  *  The  earth  is 
good,'  and  bending  down  they  touch  the  ground  with 
the  hand ;  and  as  they  stand  up  again  they  say,  '  I  will 
obey  the  orders  of  my  chief,  that  I  may  live  long  with 
my  family.' 

"  Now  these  policemen  get  only  eight  dollars  a 
month;  they're  likely  to  be  called  on  at  any  time  to 
ride  any  distance;  they  have  to  furnish  their  own 
horses,  and  yet  they  never,  so  far  as  I  have  heard,  com- 
plain. They're  a  good  lot  of  people,  and  I  ask  for 
nothing  better  than  to  stay  here  and  work  with  them, 


THE    BLACKFOOT    AGENCY  41 

but  I  hope  that  I  shall  never  have  as  bad  a  time  as  I 
had  when  they  were  starving  during  the  first  two  or 
three  months  that  I  was  here." 

"  Yes,"  said  Jack,  "  that  must  have  been  a  terrible 
time." 

As  they  were  walking  down  to  the  trader's  store, 
Jack,  who  had  been  much  impressed  by  Major  Allen's 
talk  about  the  Indians,  said  to  Hugh,  "Now,  Hugh, 
what  do  you  think  will  become  of  these  Indians?  Of 
course,  the  buffalo  never  can  come  back,  so  hunting 
days  must  be  nearly  over.  How  are  the  people  to 
support  themselves,  or  are  they  to  be  looked  after  in 
future  by  the  Government?-'  " 

"  Why.  son,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  guess  that  question  is 
puzzling,  and  it's  going  to  puzzle  a  lot  of  smarter 
men  than  you  and  I  will  ever  be.  It's  a  sure  thing 
that  these  Indians  can  never  make  a  living  in  this 
country  by  farming.  They  might  make  a  living  by 
cattle  if  they  had  any,  or  had  any  means  of  getting 
them,  but  of  course  the  Indians  have  no  money  and 
no  means  of  earning  any  money  to  buy  cattle  with. 
They  certainly  can't  hire  out  to  work,  because  there 
is  no  one  in  this  country  that  will  hire  them  and  pay 
wages.  If  they  had  cattle  and  would  take  care  of 
them  they  might  do  well,  because  this  is  one  of  the 
finest  grazing  ranges  in  the  world,  but  you  know  very 
well  that  if  the  Government  were  to  give  each  one  of 
these  Indians  a  cow  to-morrow,  a  week  hence  very 
few  of  them  would  still  have  his  cow.  They  would 
kill  them  and  eat  them,  and  then  sit  around  and  hope 
that  the  Government  would  give  them  another.  They 
have  got  to  have  a  lot  of  instruction  before  they  will 
look  out  for  the  future." 


42        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  you  can't  blame  them.  In 
the  past  when  they  wanted  food  they  went  out  and 
killed  something,  and  they  can't  be  expected  to  un- 
derstand that  things  are  changing." 

"  No,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  don't  expect  it  of  them,  but 
if  they  don't  come  to  understand  it  very  soon  they 
will  have  to  suffer  again  just  what  they  suffered  two 
years  ago." 

"Well,"  said  Jack,  "it's  mighty  hard  lines;  it's 
heartbreaking  to  think  of." 

"  So  it  is,"  said  Hugh.  "  I  feel  mighty  badly  when- 
ever I  think  of  it,  but  I  reckon  it's  the  law.  I  expect 
the  white  people  had  to  go  through  an  awful  lot  of 
suffering  before  they  got  to  the  point  where  'most 
every  man  realized  that  he  had  to  work  hard  for  a 
living,  and  I  reckon  if  you  look  around  back  where 
you  live  you'll  find  that  there  are  a  good  many  people 
in  those  big  cities  there  that  don't  realize  this  yet." 

"  Yes,"  said  Jack,  "  I  suppose  there  are,  but  these 
Indians  are  so  kindly  and  generous  and  hospitable 
that  I  feel  a  personal  sympathy  for  each  one  of  them 
that,  of  course,  I  don't  feel  for  the  inefficient  people 
back  East." 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  that's  natural,  of  course. 
You  know  these  people  and  you  don't  know  the 
others." 

Soon  after  they  got  back  to  the  trader's  store  din- 
ner was  ready,  and  after  dinner  they  lounged  about  the 
store  talking  with  Bruce. 


CHAPTER  IV 

A  MEDICINE   PIPE  CEREMONY 

Toward  the  middle  of  the  afternoon  a  wagon  drove  up 
to  the  store  and  Bruce's  wife,  carrying  a  baby,  came 
out  and  got  in  and  said  a  few  words  to  her  husband. 
He  rose  and  walked  toward  the  wagon  and  then  turned 
and  said,  "  I'm  just  going  over  with  the  woman  to 
Red  Eagle's  camp;  the  baby's  been  sick  and  she  wants 
to  have  him  doctor  it.  He's  going  to  unwrap  his 
medicine  pipe.  Do  you  men  want  to  go  along?  I 
don't  know  if  Jack  has  ever  seen  a  medicine  pipe 
unwrapped." 

"  Xo,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  reckon  he  hasn't.  What  do 
you  say,  son ?     Do  you  want  to  go?  " 

"  You  bet,  Hugh,"  said  Jack.  "  I'd  be  mighty  glad 
to  go.     We  won't  be  in  the  way,  will  we,  Mr.  Bruce?  " 

"  No,"  said  Bruce,  "  not  a  bit.     Come  along." 

It  was  not  a  long  drive  over  to  Two  Medicine  Lodge 
Creek.  Red  Eagle  was  camped  not  far  from  the  old 
piskun,  where  in  old  times  the  Blackfeet  used  to  drive 
the  buffalo  over  the  cliff,  where  the  fall  from  the  great 
height  killed  or  crippled  many  of  the  herd  and  gave 
the  people  food.  As  the  wagon  drove  up  to  Red 
Eagle's  lodge,  it  was  surrounded  by  a  pack  of  dogs 
which,  with  furious  barkings  and  snappings,  threatened 
the  visitors,  but  when  no  attention  was  paid  to  them 
they  quieted  down  at  once,  and  stood  about  with  wel- 
coming waggings  of  their  tails.     Mrs.  Bruce  climbed 

43 


44         JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

out  of  the  wagon  and  carrying  her  baby,  some  food 
and  tobacco  and  a  large  sack  of  dried  sarvis  berries, 
entered  the  old  man's  lodge,  while  the  men  drove  the 
wagon  off  a  little  distance,  unhitched  the  horses  and 
tied  them  to  the  wagon  wheels.  Returning  to  the 
lodge,  Bruce  looked  in  and  said,  "  The  old  man  hasn't 
begun  to  get  ready  yet.  We  may  as  well  stop  outside 
until  he  is  ready  to  begin." 

"  Let's  go  up  to  the  cliff,  son,"  said  Hugh,  "  and 
see  where  the  people  used  to  kill  buffalo." 

The  three  walked  over  to  the  almost  vertical  bluffs 
which  rose  sixty  or  eighty  feet  above  the  valley.  Here 
the  ground  was  strewn  with  weathered  bones  of  which 
the  soil  itself  seemed  partly  composed,  for  it  was  filled 
with  minute  fragments  of  the  bones  and  teeth  of 
buffalo. 

"  Now,  son,"  said  Hugh,  "  this  is  a  sacred  place  to 
the  Indians.  They  used  to  make  medicine  here  and 
perform  ceremonies  to  bring  the  buffalo  up  on  the 
prairie  near  here,  so  that  they  could  lead  them  over  the 
cliff.  You  see  that  pile  of  horns  over  there  ?  "  and  he 
pointed  to  a  great  heap  of  horn  sheaths  of  the  buffalo, 
as  big  as  a  hay-cock.  There  must  have  been  more 
than  a  thousand  horn  sheaths  in  it. 

Jack  looked  at  it  in  astonishment,  for  it  was  some- 
thing the  like  of  which  he  had  never  seen. 

"Although  they  have  not  used  this  place  now  for 
many  years,  the  Indians  still  try  to  keep  up  that  pile 
of  horns,  and  whenever  it  is  blown  down  or  knocked 
over  by  the  horses  they  heap  it  up  again.  In  old 
times  there  were  arranged  in  certain  places  on  the 
ground  a  lot  of  horns  all  directed  the  same  way,  that 
is,  with  the  points  of  the  horns  pointing  the  way  they 


A    MEDICINE    PIPE    CEREMONY       45 

wanted  the  buffalo  to  run.  Some  of  the  horns  were 
those  of  bulls  and  some  of  cows.  That  meant  that  they 
wanted  bulls  as  well  as  cows  to  fall  over  the  cliff.  They 
used  to  lead  the  buffalo  up  to  the  cliff,  and  fix  things 
so  that  they  would  be  running  fast  when  they  got  to  the 
edge  of  the  cliff.  The  leaders  might  perhaps  try  to 
stop,  but  they  could  not  stop  because  those  behind 
pushed  them  along  and  shoved  them  over.  Those 
that  were  behind  could  not  see  what  was  in  front  of  the 
leaders  and  kept  running  until  they  got  to  the  edge  of 
the  cliff  and  then  they  went  over.  The  fall  killed  s<  >me 
of  the  buffalo  and  crippled  others.  Besides  that,  there 
was  a  big  pen  built  about  the  place  where  the  buffalo 
fell  down;  a  fence  made  of  stones  and  logs  and  brush, 
and  women  and  children  and  men  were  hidden  all 
about  it.  As  soon  as  the  buffalo  came  tumbling  down, 
these  people  showed  themselves  all  around  the  fence, 
frightening  the  buffalo,  so  that  those  that  were  still 
able  to  travel,  instead  of  trying  to  run  on,  simply  ran 
around  in  a  circle  inside  the  fence.  Then  the  men 
killed  them  with  arrows,  and  after  all  were  dead  the 
women  went  into  the  pen  and  skinned  the  buffalo  and 
took  away  the  meat,  and  then  the  skulls  and  most  of 
the  big  bones  were  carried  off  to  a  distance  and  the 
pen  cleaned  up  for  the  next  drive." 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  I've  heard  about  this  jump- 
ing the  buffalo  over  the  cut  bank  and  catching  them 
in  pens,  but  I  never  supposed  that  I  would  see  the  place 
where  it  had  been  done." 

44  Well,"  said  Mr.  Bruce,  "  this  is  sure  one  of  the 
places  and  you  don't  need  anybody  to  tell  you  so,  be- 
cause you  can  look  around  and  see  the  bones  of  the 
buffalo  all  about  you." 


46        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

"  Yes,"  said  Jack,  "  that's  so ;  the  place  speaks  for 
itself." 

"  There  are  lots  of  old-time  things  hidden  in  this 
ground  that  we  are  standing  on,"  said  Bruce ;  "  old 
arrow  points  and  knives  and  fleshers,  and  maybe  other 
tools.  Once  in  a  while  some  of  these  things  are 
found,  but  most  of  them  are  covered  up  by  the  wash 
that  comes  down  from  the  cliff.  Old  Black  Coming 
In  Sight  Over  The  Hill,  who  lives  right  above  here, 
has  found  lots  of  arrow  points.  A  couple  of  years 
ago  he  showed  me  a  double  handful  that  he  had 
picked  up,  and  also  a  bone  flesher  made  from  the  can- 
non bone  of  a  buffalo.  There  are  a  good  many  other 
places  like  this.  One  of  them  is  up  on  Sun  River,  and 
from  that  Louis  Pambrun  got  a  knife  made  of  that 
black  rock  that  looks  like  glass,  and  a  stone  ax  and 
a  lot  of  stone  flesher  points  and,  oh,  a  whole  mess  of 
stuff." 

"  My,"  said  Jack,  "  wouldn't  I  like  to  see  some  of 
those  things  that  have  come  from  one  of  these  places. 
It  surely  seems  as  if  it  would  make  the  whole  business 
of  killing  buffalo  in  the  old-time  fashion  mighty  real 
to  one." 

"  Well,"  said  Bruce,  "  we'll  try  and  look  around 
and  see  if  we  can't  get  hold  of  something  of  that  kind 
for  you  before  you  go." 

After  a  little  more  examination  of  the  bluffs,  the 
three  returned  to  Red  Eagle's  lodge.  The  prepara- 
tions for  the  ceremony  were  not  yet  completed  and  all 
sat  down  near  the  lodge,  and  while  the  two  elder  men 
smoked,  Jack  looked  about  him  and  tried  to  make 
friends  with  the  little  children  who  were  racing  about 
playing  their  games.     One  little  fellow  only  about  two 


A    MEDICINE    PIPE    CEREMONY       47 

years  of  age  quite  won  Jack's  heart  by  his  friendh 
smile  and  evident  lack  of  fear.  His  clothing  consisted 
of  several  strings  of  beads,  a  buckskin  string  about  his 
neck,  to  which  was  attached  a  stone  charm,  and  a  very 
short  shirt  which  came  down  to  his  lower  ribs.  He 
had  been  playing  in  the  stream  or  in  some  half-dried 
puddle,  and  the  lower  part  of  his  person  was  covered 
by  a  thick  coating  of  mud.  The  little  fellow  marched 
up  to  Jack  in  a  confident  way,  shook  hands  with  him 
in  a  matter-of-fact  fashion  and  clambered  up  on  his 
knee,  and  after  looking  at  Jack's  clothing  and  buttons 
and  listening  to  the  ticking  of  his  watch,  sat  perfectly 
still  watching  the  doings  of  his  fellows.  The  children 
were  amusing  themselves  by  making  miserable  the  lives 
of  the  dogs.  When  they  found  a  dog  sleeping  some- 
where or  playing  near  them,  they  would  creep  up  to  it 
and  beat  it  with  long  twigs  and  pieces  of  wood  until 
the  dog  ran  away  into  the  brush  with  melancholy 
howlings,  which  seemed  to  delight  the  young  Indians. 

At  length  a  woman's  voice  called  from  the  lodge, 
and  Bruce  and  Hugh  rose  and  passed  in,  Jack  follow- 
ing. A  number  of  Indians  were  seated  around  the 
fire,  but  Red  Eagle,  the  principal  personage,  sat  at  the 
back  of  the  lodge  with  the  fire  between  himself  and  the 
door.  At  his  left  was  an  unoccupied  space,  to  which 
the  three  newcomers  were  motioned.  To  the  left  of 
the  doorway,  in  the  women's  place,  sat  several  women, 
some  of  whom  had  babies  either  on  their  backs  or  be- 
tween their  knees.  To  the  right  of  Red  Eagle  was 
his  wife  and  assistant,  the  Bear  Woman. 

Red  Eagle  was  a  large,  fine-looking  man  of  majestic 
presence.  His  massive  face,  kindly  and  benignant  in 
expression,  was  framed  in  long  gray  hair  which  hung 


48         JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

down  over  his  broad  shoulders.     He  was  one  of  the 
oldest  man  in  the  tribe,  and  was  blind. 

After  Hugh  and  the  others  had  seated  themselves, 
there  was  a  little  pause,  and  then  the  Bear  Woman 
took  up  a  dried  willow  branch,  which  had  two  parallel 
twigs  close  together,  serving  for  a  pair  of  tongs,  and 
lifted  from  the  fire  a  live  coal,  which  she  placed  on  the 
ground  before  the  Bear  Man,  who  then  began  to  sing 
a  low,  monotonous  chant  in  a  minor  key,  in  which  all 
the  other  Indians  soon  joined.  While  singing,  the  old 
man  interrupted  himself  at  intervals  to  exclaim  ni-ai, 
(my  shelter  or  covering),  the  other  Indians  keeping  up 
the  singing.  After  a  few  moments  he  reached  his 
hand  under  the  robe  on  which  he  was  sitting  and 
drew  out  a  small  pouch,  which  he  passed  to  the  Bear 
Woman.  She  slowly  untied  it  and  took  from  it  a 
pinch  of  the  dried  needles  of  the  sweet  pine,  which  she 
held  over  the  coal.  Then  the  Bear  Man  sang  four 
times,  and  as  the  music  rose  and  fell  the  Bear  Woman's 
hand  rose  and  fell  over  the  coal.  At  the  end  of  the 
fourth  song  Read  Eagle  stretched  out  his  hand  and 
made  a  downward  gesture,  and  the  Bear  Woman  let 
fall  the  incense  on  the  coal,  and  immediately  the  fra- 
grant perfume  of  the  burning  pine  needles  filled  the 
lodge.  The  singing  continued  a  little  longer  and  then 
stopped.  Then  both  Red  Eagle  and  his  assistant 
stretched  out  their  hands  over  the  smoke  of  the  burn- 
ing sweet  pine,  rubbed  them  together,  and  then;  seem- 
ing to  grasp  some  of  the  smoke  in  their  hands,  rubbed 
it  over  their  heads  and  forearms,  and  reaching  out  and 
grasping  more  of  it,  passed  it  over  their  heads, 
shoulders,  and  upper  arms.  They  also  seemed  to  take 
handfuls  of  the  smoke  and  eat  it  or  breathe  it  in,  the 


A    MEDICINE    PIPE    CEREMONY       49 

idea  being  that  they  were  purifying  themselves  with- 
out and  within.  Then  presently  the  Bear  Man  turned 
his  face  toward  the  sun  and  began  to  pray.  Some 
portion  of  what  he  said  Jack  could  understand,  but 
afterward  he  asked  Bruce  to  interpret  the  prayer,  and 
this  is  what  it  was : 

"  Hear  Above  People,  hear  Thunder,  those  Animals 
[meaning  his  secret  helpers  or  medicine  animals], 
hear.  Pity  us,  pity  us.  Let  us  live,  let  us  live.  Give  us 
full  life.  Let  us  grow  to  be  old.  Listen.  Crow  Arrow, 
let  him  live.  In  his  wandering  about  let  no  danger  be- 
fall him  from  bad  beasts  or  dangers  that  are  on  the 
trail.  Let  his  wife  and  his  boy,  this  child  with  the  shin- 
ing hair,  live  to  be  very  old  and  let  them  have  plenty 
of  everything.  Let  White  Bull  live,  keep  him  when 
he  is  traveling,  protect  him  from  all  dangers,  from 
perils  from  animals,  and  from  all  dangers  on  the 
trail.  Let  his  relations  live  and  have  abundance,  and 
White  Wrarrior,  let  him  live,  care  for  him  and  keep 
him  safe  from  dangers,  wherever  he  may  be.  All 
people  let  live.  O  Creator,  have  pity  on  the  people 
so  that  they  may  live  well,  free  from  danger!  " 

Then  he  turned  his  face  and  appeared  to  address 
the  bundle  hung  on  the  lodge  poles  behind  him  con- 
taining the  pipe :  "  Oh,  tell  them  to  have  pity  on  us. 
Let  the  young  people  grow,  increase  their  flesh.  Let 
all  men,  women,  and  children  have  full  life.  Harden 
the  bodies  of  old  people  so  that  they  may  reach  great 
age." 

The  prayer  ended  and  all  the  people  gave  a  long- 
drawn  ah-h-h-h,  meaning  yes,  about  the  equivalent  of 
our  amen. 

Jack  sat  spellbound  as  he  watched  the  old  man  while 


50        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

he  prayed.  Here,  indeed,  was  a  priest  who  really 
wished  for  what  he  was  asking.  Here  was  one  who 
threw  himself  on  the  mercy  of  his  God  and  would  not 
let  Him  go.  He  implored,  he  urged,  he  insisted,  and 
would  not  be  denied,  and  as  Jack  saw  the  great  beads 
of  sweat  stand  out  on  the  old  man's  brow  his  memory 
went  back  to  one  of  his  Sunday-school  lessons  of  long 
ago,  and  he  thought  of  a  struggle  told  of  in  the  Bible, 
when  at  the  ford  Jabbock,  another  patriarch,  wres- 
tled through  the  long  night  with  his  God  and  pre- 
vailed. 

But  Jack  had  little  time  to  think  about  this,  for  now 
the  singing  was  resumed;  Red  Eagle  starting  it  as 
before,  the  others  after  a  little  time  joining  in  the 
plaintive  refrain.  Again  the  Bear  Woman  sprinkled 
sweet  pine  on  the  coal,  and  again  the  priest  and 
priestess  purified  themselves  by  passing  the  smoke 
over  their  arms,  heads,  and  bodies.  Then  they  seemed 
again  to  take  handfuls  of  it  and  to  hold  the  smoke 
under  the  large  package  tied  to  the  lodge  poles  above 
them.  Presently,  as  the  singing  continued,  the  Bear 
Woman  rose  to  her  knees  and  very  slowly  and  rever- 
ently untied  the  package  from  the  poles  and  placed  it 
on  the  robe  between  the  Bear  Man  and  herself. 

Now  Red  Eagle  began  a  new  song,  and  after  he  and 
the  woman  had  again  passed  their  hands  through  the 
smoke,  they  moved  them  over  the  bundle,  raising  them 
alternately  in  time  to  the  music.  At  first  the  hands 
were  closed,  except  the  forefinger,  which  pointed 
straight  out,  and  the  up-and-down  motions  were  quick 
and  sharp,  representing  the  dainty  rise  and  fall  of  the 
feet  of  the  antelope  as  it  walks.  Then,  at  a  change  in 
the  air,  the  fingers  were  all  bent,  but  the  hand  not 


A    MEDICINE    PIPE    CEREMONY        51 

closed,  and  the  up-and-down  motions  became  delib- 
erate and  heavy,  representing  the  slow  tread  of  a 
walking  bear.  At  another  change  the  old  man  raised 
his  hands,  partly  closed,  the  forefinger  extended,  point- 
ing upward  and  slightly  bent  inward,  to  the  side  of 
his  head,  and  moving  his  face  this  way  and  that,  as  if 
looking  about  him,  called  out  in  a  shrill  voice,  Hoo. 
The  hand  sign  meant  buffalo  and  the  motion  of  the 
head  signified  looking  or  watching.  This  sign,  as 
Bruce  afterward  explained  to  Jack,  was  related  to  the 
word  ni-ai,  so  often  used  in  the  songs,  meaning  my 
shelter,  my  covering,  my  robe ;  for  the  shelter,  cover- 
ing, or  robe  of  these  Indians  is  made  from  the  buffalo. 

Again  the  air  of  the  song  changed,  and  the  priest 
and  his  wife  holding  their  hands  palm  downward,  all 
the  fingers  extended  forward,  moved  them  up  and 
down,  making  the  sign  for  walking,  which  repre- 
sented going  to  war,  and  the  sign  for  danger  or  watch- 
fulness, the  forefingers  pointed  straight  up  and  held 
at  the  side  of  the  head,  like  a  pricked  ear,  with  a  star- 
tled expression  of  countenance  and  a  watchful  look. 

After  this  song  was  ended,  Red  Eagle  began  slowly 
and  carefully  to  remove  the  wrappings  from  the  pack- 
age at  his  side,  but  he  still  sang,  though  the  air  was 
again  changed  to  a  slower,  more  monotonous  chant. 
After  the  strings  had  been  untied  from  the  double- 
mouthed  red  cloth  sack  which  formed  the  outer  cover- 
ing of  the  package,  he  drew  from  it  a  long  bundle, 
wrapped  in  cloths  of  various  colors.  One  by  one  he 
took  off  these  cloths,  until,  after  many  had  been  re- 
moved, the  medicine  pipe  was  revealed.  It  was  a 
handsome  pipe  stem  about  four  feet  long,  wrapped  for 
a  part  of  its  length  with  large  showy  beads  and  pro- 


52        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

fusely  ornamented  with  ermine  skins  and  tails  and 
with  the  feathers  of  eagles  and  other  birds,  which  hung 
from  it  in  thick  bunches.  Near  the  lower  or  pipe  end 
of  the  stem  was  a  separate  plume  made  of  twelve  tail 
feathers  of  the  war  eagle,  each  having  its  extremity 
wrapped  with  red  or  yellow  horse  hair,  which  hung 
down  in  a  long  tuft.  The  whole  stem  was  handsome 
and  heavy. 

After  the  covering  had  been  removed,  the  old  man 
bent  for  a  moment  in  silence  over  the  pipe,  and  then 
raised  it  slowly  and  tenderly  to  his  face,  making  a  soft, 
cooing,  caressing  sound.  He  pressed  it  to  his  lips  and 
whispered  to  it,  while  he  raised  his  sightless  eyes 
toward  the  sun,  as  if  he  could  look  through  their  veil 
and  through  the  lodge  covering  and  see  some  being 
invisible  to  others.  After  a  few  moments'  silence  he 
again  spoke  to  the  pipe  in  a  low  voice,  and  passed  it 
over  his  arms,  shoulders,  and  both  sides  of  his  head. 
Then  he  began  the  song  again,  shaking  the  pipe  in 
time  to  the  music.  When  he  had  finished  he  again 
prayed,  and  said,  "  O  Sun,  O  Moon  and  Stars,  pity  us, 
pity  us.  Look  down."  Then  followed  again  the  sub- 
stance of  the  first  prayer,  and  he  ended  with  the  peti- 
tion for  men  who  were  now  away  on  the  warpath, 
saying,  "  Little  Plume,  let  him  survive.  Tearing  Lodge 
and  Double  Rider,  let  them  survive  and  return,  bring- 
ing the  heads."  Then  turning,  he  passed  the  pipe  to 
Hugh,  who  held  it  before  his  face  and  bent  his  head. 
Then  it  went  to  Jack,  who  imitated  Hugh.  Then 
Bruce  took  it  and  made  a  prayer,  and  from  him  it 
passed  to  an  old  blind  warrior,  who  prayed  long  and 
fervently,  and  so  it  went  around  the  circle,  each  one 
who  received  it  making  a  prayer.     Jack  listened  hard 


A    MEDICINE    PIPE    CEREMONY       53 

to  try  to  hear  what  the  different  people  said,  but  they 
spoke  in  low  tones,  and  only  now  and  then  could  he 
catch  a  word:  Kim'-o-kit  (have  pity);  napi  (old 
man),  or  nu-tos^  (sun).  When  the  pipe  went  back 
around  the  circle  to  the  other  side  of  the  lodge,  where 
were  the  women  and  their  little  babies,  the  women 
prayed  as  they  took  it  and  then  passed  the  pipe  stem 
over  the  bodies  and  heads  of  their  little  ones,  believing 
that  the  sacred  influence  would  benefit  the  children. 

Meanwhile,  Red  Eagle  had  taken  up  a  medicine  rat- 
tle and  again  began  to  sing,  shaking  the  rattle  in  time 
to  the  music.  When  at  length  the  pipe  returned  to 
him  he  put  down  his  rattle,  took  the  stem  and  repeated 
rapidly  a  number  of  times  the  words.  "  Pity  us,  pity 
us,  pity  us."  Then,  putting  the  stem  on  the  robe  be- 
tween himself  and  his  wife,  he  rose,  began  a  new 
song  and  began  to  dance,  first  to  the  east,  and  then 
turning  about  toward  the  west.  The  people  sitting 
in  the  lodge  accompanied  him  in  a  melodious  but 
plaintive  minor  chant.  Presently  he  stopped  dancing, 
faced  about,  and,  sitting  down,  prayed  again,  conclud- 
ing with  these  words,  "  Let  the  Sun  shine  upon  us  and 
our  lives  be  without  shadows."  Then  he  made  a  sign 
that  the  ceremony  was  over,  and  all  rose  and  filed  out 
of  the  lodge. 

Jack  was  mightily  impressed  by  the  ceremony  that 
he  had  just  witnessed,  yet,  though  he  was  anxious  to 
ask  many  questions,  he  hardly  felt  like  doing  so  of 
Bruce,  especially  in  the  presence  of  his  wife,  whose 
faith  in  the  religion  of  which  the  old  man  was  the 
priest  he  supposed  to  be  strong.  It  was  not  until  after 
they  had  got  back  to  the  Agency,  therefore,  that  he 
said  very  much  about  it. 


54        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

Before  supper,  however,  he  had  an  opportunity  to 
speak  to  Hugh,  and  to  ask  him  some  questions  about 
the  religion  of  these  Indians. 

"  That  is  one  of  the  most  solemn  things  I  ever  saw, 
Hugh,"  he  said,  "  and  I  want  to  ask  some  questions 
about  it.  I  don't  know  if  I  ever  told  you  how  I  felt 
that  time  when  Last  Bull  gave  me  my  name  and 
prayed  over  me.  Of  course  that  was  two  or  three 
years  ago,  and  I  was  a  good  deal  younger  then  than 
I  am  now ;  but  I  never  before  had  had  anything  make 
me  feel  as  solemn  as  that  prayer  did,  and  that's  just 
the  way  I  felt  to-day  when  Red  Eagle  was  praying. 
It  seems  to  me  that  when  these  Indians  pray,  they 
pray  as  if  they  meant  what  they  were  saying.  They 
seem  to  be  in  earnest  about  it.  Now,  when  I  hear  a 
white  man  praying, — that  is,  most  white  men,  I  don't 
mean  to  say  it's  the  same  with  all, — they  don't  seem  to 
be  in  earnest;  they  seem  to  be  going  through  a  sort 
of  form.  Did  you  notice  how  the  sweat  stood  out  on 
that  old  man's  face  when  he  was  making  his  prayer; 
how  solemn  he  was,  and  how  he  acted  just  as  if  he 
were  begging  somebody  for  something  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  noticed  that,  and  it's  so  that 
when  these  Indians  pray  they  are  surely  in  earnest. 
They  are  not  getting  off  something  that  they've  learned 
by  heart  and  just  saying  it  because  they  have  to ;  they 
mean  all  that  they  say  and  they  are  really  asking 
favors.  People  say  that  they're  nothing  but  poor  sav- 
ages and  that  they're  pagans,  and  all  that,  but  I  tell 
you  when  they're  talking  to  their  God  they  could  give 
points  to  a  whole  lot  of  white  folks." 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  I've  seen  some  Indians  pray, 
and  I've  been  present  at  some  ceremonies,  like  the 


A    MEDICINE    PIPE    CEREMONY        55 

medicine  lodge  and  like  opening  the  beaver  bundle,  but 
I  never  saw  anything  that  seemed  to  me  as  real  as 
this  that  we've  seen  to-day." 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  am  right  glad  we  went,  and 
I'm  glad  that  you  saw  it.  These  Indians  and  all  the 
other  Indians  that  I  know  anything  about  are  chang- 
ing mighty  fast.  They're  losing  their  old  ways  and 
picking  up  new  ones  that  are  not  half  so  good.  They're 
changing  all  the  time,  and  before  you  are  many  years 
older  you  won't  be  able  to  see  any  of  these  old-time 
ways.  There  are  three  or  four  railroads  now  running 
across  through  the  country  that  used  to  belong  all  to 
the  Indians,  and  now  that  the  buffalo  are  about  gone 
they've  got  to  come  on  to  their  reservations  and  learn 
to  work  to  earn  a  living,  and  just  as  soon  as  they  do 
that  you'll  see  all  the  old  customs  go,  and  when  they 
once  go  they'll  very  soon  be  forgotten." 

"  But  what  a  pity  it  is,  Hugh,"  said  Jack,  "  that 
they've  got  to  change!  Why  can't  they  be  left  out 
here  to  live  their  life  in  the  old  way?" 

"  Why,  son,"  said  Hugh,  "  you  are  talking  now 
without  thinking,  talking  just  as  I  have  felt  a  great 
many  times;  but  you  know  and  I  know  from  what 
we've  both  seen  that  before  very  long  these  people 
are  all  going  to  be  crowded  out  of  the  most  of  this 
country  by  the  white  folks.  Don't  you  remember  a 
couple  of  years  ago  when  we  came  back  from  the 
coast,  how  the  little  towns  were  springing  up  all  along 
the  new  railroad  that  they  were  building,  and  now  that 
the  railroad  has  been  finished,  all  along  it,  east  and 
west,  there  are  growing  up  settlements  of  people  that 
will  soon  be  towns.  The  white  people  are  coming  in 
crowds,  and  as  soon  as  they've  taken  all  the  best  loca- 


56        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

tions  along  the  railroad  they'll  begin  to  spread  out  and 
take  up  other  locations,  and  I  believe  that  I'll  live  long 
enough  to  see  this  Montana  Territory  full  of  people. 
It'll  be  here  just  as  I've  seen  it  happen  in  the  South. 
First  the  cattle  will  come  into  the  country,  lots  of 
them,  and  for  a  while  it  will  be  all  cows  and  cowboys ; 
and  then,  little  by  little,  the  ranchers  will  come  in,  and 
they'll  settle  first  on  one  creek  bottom  and  then  on  an- 
other, and  then  maybe  mines  will  be  found  in  the 
mountains,  and  new  railroads  will  be  built,  and  at  last 
there  won't  be  room  in  the  country  for  anybody  but 
white  folks  that  are  working  hard  to  make  money 
out  of  the  prairie  and  the  river  bottoms,  and  even  out 
of  the  mountains.  A  few  years  ago  I  wouldn't  have 
believed  it,  but  I  have  seen  it  happen  now  in  lots  of 
different  parts  of  the  country,  and  I  reckon  it  will 
happen  here,  just  as  it  has  in  so  many  other  places." 

"  Well,  Hugh,"  said  Jack,  "  I  suppose  that's  so.  I 
remember,  as  you  say,  the  way  the  settlements  were 
springing  up  along  the  new  railroad  when  we  came 
back  from  British  Columbia,  and  this  time,  coming 
out,  I  could  see  the  little  towns  starting  all  along  the 
Northern  Pacific,  back  in  Minnesota  and  west  of  there, 
but  it  does  seem  awfully  rough  that  these  Indians 
should  all  be  driven  from  their  own  land  and  should 
have  to  be  penned  up  on  a  little  reservation.  And  I 
don't  see  what  in  the  world  they're  going  to  do  to 
live  unless  the  Government  feeds  them." 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  don't  either.  I  suppose 
maybe  some  time  they'll  have  to  turn  into  cattlemen. 
I  always  had  an  idea  they'd  make  good  cow  hands,  if 
they  could  be  taught  to  look  after  cattle.  Certainly 
the  Indians  used  to  take  awful  good  care  of  their 


A    MEDICINE    PIPE    CEREMONY        57 

ponies,  and  if  they  could  be  taught  to  take  good  care 
of  cows,  they  could  make  a  good  living  just  as  long 
as  they've  got  the  range  that  most  any  reservation 
will  furnish.  You  know  the  Navahoes  down  South 
and  some  others  of  those  Southern  Indians  have  big 
herds  of  sheep  and  take  pretty  good  care  of  them,  but 
of  course  sheep  and  cattle  are  different  things." 

That  evening  in  the  store  Hugh  asked  Bruce  what 
he  thought  of  the  probability  of  the  Indians  taking  to 
cattle-raising. 

"  Why,"  said  Bruce,  "  they  could  make  good  cow- 
men if  they'd  look  after  the  stock.  This  is  one  of  the 
greatest  cattle  ranges  in  the  whole  countrv,  and  the 
few  cattle  that  I  own  have  done  mighty  well.  I  have 
had  two  Indians,  my  brothers-in-law,  looking  after 
the  stock,  and  they  are  getting  to  understand  how  to 
handle  cattle  well.  But  the  trouble  is  that  the  average 
Indian  hasn't  much  feeling  of  responsibility,  and  in- 
stead of  spending  the  day  on  his  horse  looking  after 
the  cattle,  he's  likely  to  get  off  and  lie  down  in  the  sun 
and  sleep  for  half  a  day  and  let  the  stock  get  away 
from  him.  They  haven't  yet  got  any  idea  of  the  im- 
portance of  staying  with  a  job.  They'll  work  hard 
until  they  get  tired  of  it,  and  then  they'll  stop,  and  you 
can't  start  them  up  again.  You  see,  they've  never  been 
used  to  working  steadily.  They'd  work  as  long  as 
they  felt  like  it,  and  then  stop.  That's  what  they've 
got  to  learn  before  they  can  accomplish  anything 
toward  making  a  living.  They've  got  to  learn  the 
lesson  of  steady,  continued  effort,  and  it's  going  to 
be  mighty  hard  to  teach  them  that." 

Late  in  the  evening  Hugh  said  to  Jack,  "  Well,  son, 
we've  seen  about  all  we  need  to  around  here,  haven't 


58         JACK,   THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

we?  What  do  you  say  to  our  starting  out  to  the 
mountains  to  make  our  trip  ?  " 

"  Why,"  said  Jack,  "  I'm  ready,  and  I  don't  see  why 
we  can't  go  off  vright  away." 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  the  sooner  we  get  off  the 
better  it  will  suit  me,  and  if  you  feel  like  it,  we'll  get 
hold  of  Joe  to-morrow  and  pack  up  our  stuff  and  start. 
I  reckon  we  can  have  a  good  time  up  at  the  lakes 
hunting  around  there.  You  see,  nobody's  ever  been 
up  to  the  heads  of  any  of  those  rivers,  and  I'd  like  to 
go  up  there  and  see  what  there  is,  and  I  reckon  you 
would,  too." 

"  Sure,  I  would,"  said  Jack. 

"  All  right,"  said  Hugh,  "  let's  get  hold  of  Joe  to- 
morrow, and  maybe  we'll  start  the  next  day.  I  don't 
think  there's  anything  to  keep  us  here." 


CHAPTER    V 

OFF  FOR  THE  MOUNTAINS 

When  Joe  appeared  early  the  next  morning  he  was 
at  once  sent  off  to  get  the  horses.  Jack  went  with  him, 
and  an  hour  or  two  later  the  wagon,  two  saddle  horses, 
and  three  loose  animals  were  standing  in  front  of  the 
trading  store.  Beds,  provisions,  pack  saddles,  and  a 
tent  were  soon  loaded  into  the  wagon,  and  before  very 
Jong  the  party  pulled  out  across  Badger  Creek,  above 
the  stockade,  and  climbed  the  hills  toward  the  north. 
Hugh  and  Joe  rode  in  the  wagon,  while  Jack  drove 
the  loose  horses  ahead  of  it.  For  some  distance  there 
was  a  road  which  was  partly  wagon  road  and  partly 
old  travois  trail,  but  gradually  the  track  became  more 
and  more  dim,  and  soon  Jack  found  himself  riding 
over  the  unmarked  prairie.  Before  this,  however,  they 
crossed  Two  Medicine  Lodge  River,  just  below  Old 
Red  Eagle's  camp,  and  climbed  the  high  hill  on  the 
other  side  and  saw  before  them  the  wide,  undulating 
prairie  and  pinnacled  mountains  to  the  northwest. 
After  reaching  substantially  level  ground  Jack  pulled 
up,  and  when  the  wagon  overtook  him  asked  Joe, 
"Which  way  do  we  go  from  here  on,  Joe?" 

"Well,"  said- Joe,  "  keep  pretty  well  off  to  your 
left,  riding  pretty  nearly  straight  for  that  pointed 
mountain  that  you  see  over  there,  the  one  away  to  the 
left  of  Chief  Mountain." 

"  Oh,"  asked  Jack,  "  is  that  Chief  Mountain  that 
we  see  sticking  up  there  like  a  finger  off  to  the  north  ?  " 

59 


60         JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

"  Yes,"  said  Joe,  "  that's  it,  the  last  mountain  to 
the  right.  But  you  want  to  keep  off  to  the  left,  and 
in  three  or  four  hours  you'll  come  to  a  big  wide  valley 
with  a  good-sized  river  running  through  it.  I  reckon 
we'd  better  camp  there,  hadn't  we,  White  Bull  ?  "  he 
asked,  turning  to  Hugh. 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  that's  a  good  place.  We  can't 
get  on  as  far  as  Milk  River  to-night ;  in  fact,  we'll  do 
well  if  we  get  up  to  the  head  of  it  to-morrow." 

"  All  right,"  said  Jack,  "  I'll  go  on.  I  don't  believe 
you  will  be  far  behind  me,  anyhow." 

"  No,"  said  Joe,  "  we'll  be  pretty  close  to  you. 
There's  a  big  flat  in  the  valley  we're  going  to  and  some 
timber  at  the  upper  end,  and  we'll  camp  there.  Maybe 
you'll  see  some  of  the  people  there,  too.  Cross  Guns 
often  camps  up  at  the  head  of  that  flat." 

For  several  hours  Jack  trotted  briskly  along  over 
the  prairie,  keeping  the  horses  well  together  ahead  of 
him.  They  drove  very  nicely  and  gave  him  little 
trouble.  He  was  surprised  and  pleased  to  find  how 
easy  riding  seemed,  for  it  was  nearly  a  year  since 
he  had  been  on  a  horse.  It  was  pleasant  under  the 
bright  warm  sun,  with  the  fragrance  of  the  sage  brush 
in  his  nostrils,  the  green  swells  of  the  prairie  on  either 
side,  the  beautiful  flowers  showing  everywhere,  and 
the  air  full  of  the  sweet  songs  of  prairie  birds. 

As  he  rode  over  a  hill  about  the  middle  of  the  after- 
noon he  saw  before  him  a  wide  valley,  through  which 
ran  a  considerable  stream,  with  large  cottonwoods 
and  low  willows  marking  its  course  at  various  points, 
and  turning  a  little  more  to  the  left  he  pushed  the 
horses  down  the  hills,  and  at  length  came  out  on  a  wide 
grassy  bottom.     Still  to  the  left  there  was  a  grove  of 


OFF    FOR    THE    MOUNTAINS  61 

tall  cottonwood  trees,  among  which  shone  two  or  three 
white  lodges,  and  he  rode  up  toward  them,  slackening 
his  pace  as  he  did  so.  The  horses  that  he  was  driving 
at  once  began  to  feed,  and  looking  back  he  saw  the 
wagon  coming  into  sight  on  the  crest  of  the  bluffs 
that  he  had  just  left.  Leaving  the  horses  to  feed,  he 
galloped  to  the  timber  where  the  lodges  stood,  and 
rode  up  to  one  of  them. 

At  the  fierce  barkings  of  the  dogs,  a  woman  put  her 
head  out  of  a  door,  and  when  she  saw  Jack,  put  her 
hand  quickly  over  her  mouth  in  surprise,  and  then 
spoke  to  someone  in  the  lodge,  and  a  moment  later 
Cross  Guns  came  through  the  door,  and  walking  up 
to  Jack  shook  hands  with  him  very  cordially.  By 
means  of  signs  and  broken  Piegan  the  two  held  a  short 
conversation,  and  then,  as  Cross  Guns  saw  the  wagon 
approaching,  he  signed  to  Jack  to  go  and  tell  his 
friends  to  come  up  and  camp  here,  and  Jack,  riding 
off,  delivered  the  message  to  Hugh  and  Joe,  and  then 
brought  the  loose  horses  close  to  the  lodge.  Mean- 
while Cross  Guns  had  had  one  of  his  lodges  cleared 
and  a  fire  built  in  it,  so  that  the  three  men  at  once 
moved  into  a  house,  and  thus  were  spared  the  labor  of 
putting  up  their  tent.  It  was  a  fine,  new  buffalo  skin 
lodge;  perhaps  the  lightest,  warmest,  and  most  com- 
fortable portable  shelter  ever  devised  by  any  people. 

After  the  horses  had  been  turned  out  and  put  in 
charge  of  Cross  Guns'  young  nephew,  who  took  them 
off  and  turned  them  out  with  Cross  Guns'  herd,  the 
wife  of  their  host  came  in  and  cooked  supper  for  them, 
while  the  others  lounged  comfortably  about  on  the 
beds  with  their  feet  toward  the  fire  and  talked. 

"  Who  is  Cross  Guns,  Hugh?  "  whispered  Jack.   "  I 


62         JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

know  his  face  perfectly  well,  but  I  don't  remember 
where  I've  seen  him,  nor  who  his  relations  are." 

"  Why,"  said  Hugh,  "  don't  you  know  ?  He's  one 
of  the  sons  of  Old  White  Calf  and  a  brother  of  Wolf 
Tail.  Old  White  Calf  is  the  chief  now,  and  a  good 
old  man,  always  thinking  about  what  he  can  do  for 
his  people." 

"  Of  course,"  said  Jack,  "  I  know  White  Calf  per- 
fectly well,  and  I  know  what  a  good  man  he  is,  but  I 
had  forgotten  that  Cross  Guns  is  his  son." 

"  And  this  woman  here,"  said  Hugh,  "  do  you  know 
who  she  is  ?  " 

"  No,"  said  Jack,  "  I  don't.  I've  seen  her  before, 
too,  and  she's  a  mighty  pleasant-faced  woman,  but  I 
don't  know  her." 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  you  wouldn't  think  it  to  look 
at  her,  but  she's  a  granddaughter  of  one  of  the  chief 
factors  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  about  a  hun- 
dred years  ago.  Old  James  Bull  came  over  here,  I 
reckon,  about  1775,  and  after  working  for  the  Hud- 
son's Bay  Company  for  a  while  he  became  one  of 
the  chief  factors.  He  married  a  Piegan  woman,  and 
his  son,  Jim  Bull,  is  living  here  yet.  I  reckon  he  must 
be  about  ninety  years  old.  This  woman  is  a  daughter 
of  Jim  Bull.  I  reckon  you  never  saw  him.  He's  a 
queer  old  chap,  mighty  religious  nowadays,  but  they 
tell  great  stories  about  him  in  old  times,  about  how 
wild  he  was.  They  say  he  used  to  go  off  on  the  war- 
path with  the  Blackfeet  and  fight  the  white  traders, 
run  off  their  horses,  and  of  course  kill  the  men  when 
he  could.  Of  course  I  don't  know  whether  these 
stories  are  true  or  not,  but  one  of  them  is  that  one 
time  he  met  a  party  of  traders  and  trappers  and  the 


OFF    FOR    THE    MOUNTAINS  63 

Blackfeet  attacked  them  and  were  driven  off.  The  fur 
traders  were  on  one  side  of  the  river  and  the  Black- 
feet  on  the  other,  and  after  the  fight  was  over  Jim 
Bull,  they  say,  came  to  the  edge  of  the  stream  and 
called  across  to  the  fur  traders,  saying  that  he  was  a 
white  man  and  wanted  to  make  peace.  He  wanted 
to  know  if  one  of  them  wouldn't  cross  over  and  talk 
it  over  with  him.  There  was  some  talk  among  the 
white  men  as  to  whether  it  would  be  sate  to  do  this, 
but  finally  one  of  them  said  he'd  go  over,  and  did  so. 
The  trader  went  over,  and  he  and  Bull  sat  down  and 
smoked  and  talked  about  making  peace  and  what  a 
pity  it  was  to  fight  and  all  that  sort  of  thing,  and  then 
presently,  while  they  were  sitting  there  smoking,  Jim 
Bull  pulled  out  a  pistol  and  killed  the  white  man  and 
scalped  him  and  gave  the  war-cry  and  went  off. 

"  Another  time,  according  to  the  story,  he  went  into 
camp  dressed  up  like  a  Canadian  engage,  that  is,  with 
a  blanket  coat,  and  so  on,  and  told  the  man  that  was 
on  guard  over  the  horses  that  he  was  ordered  to  turn 
them  out  to  feed.  They  were  let  go  and  scattered 
about  feeding,  and  presently  a  party  of  Blackfeet  that 
were  hidden  near  by  rounded  them  up  and  took  them 
all  off,  and  Bull  went  with  them.  He  got  to  be  so 
mean  after  a  while  that  they  say  that  one  of  the  head 
men  of  one  of  these  trapping  outfits  offered  five  hun- 
dred dollars  for  Bull's  head.  Of  course,  he's  an  old 
man  now,  and  he  gave  up  all  these  boy's  tricks  a  good 
many  years  ago.  As  I  say,  now  he's  mighty  religious. 
He  had  a  Piegan  woman  and  quite  a  number  of  chil- 
dren here  in  the  country ;  pretty  smart,  too,  all  of  them 
are." 

After  supper  was  over  Hugh  said  to  Jack,  "  Now^ 


64        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

son,  there  are  quite  a  lot  of  trout  in  the  creek  there, 
and  if  you  want  to  help  out  our  breakfast  you  might 
go  out  and  try  to  catch  some." 

"A  good  idea,  Hugh;  I'll  do  it,"  and  Jack  jointed 
his  rod  and  spent  an  hour  or  two  fishing.  The  trout 
did  not  seem  to  care  much  for  his  flies,  and  at  last  he 
substituted  for  them  a  plain  hook,  which  he  baited 
with  a  grasshopper.  With  grasshoppers  for  bait,  he 
caught  about  a  dozen  fish,  none  of  them  large,  but 
enough  to  provide  a  breakfast  for  the  party. 

It  was  about  sunset  when  he  returned,  and  when 
Hugh  saw  his  catch  he  said,  "  That's  good ;  those  little 
trout  are  going  to  taste  mighty  well  to-morrow  morn- 
ing, but  give  them  to  me  and  I'll  go  out  and  dress  them 
now.  You  know  these  Indians  won't  eat  fish  nor  any- 
thing that  lives  in  the  water,  and  I  wouldn't  be  a  bit 
surprised  if  Cross  Guns'  wife  should  refuse  to  cook 
them.  We  may  have  to  fry  them  ourselves  to-morrow 
morning." 

It  was  full  daylight  before  camp  was  astir,  and  the 
sun  was  sending  long  level  beams  from  the  eastern 
sky  when  Jack  went  out  of  the  lodge  and  down  to  the 
stream  to  wash.  When  he  returned  Hugh  was  fry- 
ing the  fish,  having  thought  that  he  had  better  get 
that  done  rather  than  to  take  the  chance  of  Cross  Guns' 
wife  refusing  to  do  it.  A  little  later  the  horses  were 
brought  in,  and,  soon  after,  bidding  their  host  and 
hostess  good-by,  they  started  on  toward  the  mountains. 

As  Jack  drove  his  horse  across  the  different  chan- 
nels of  the  river,  which  here  cut  the  bottom  up  into  a 
number  of  small,  gravelly  islands,  he  started  a  mother 
hooded  merganser  and  her  brood  of  tiny  young  from 
one  of  the  banks,  and  was  interested  to  see  the  speed 


OFF    FOR    THE    MOUNTAINS  65 

with  which  they  swam  and  dived  to  get  out  of  reach. 
The  trees  and  the  prairie  were  alive  with  birds,  and 
in  a  tall  cottonwood  he  saw  a  great  hawk's  nest,  near 
which  one  of  the  parent  birds  was  perched.  As  he 
rode  up  out  of  the  bottom  on  to  the  higher  prairie,  he 
began  to  see  the  wall  of  mountains  on  the  left,  now 
much  nearer  than  it  had  seemed  when  he  had  started 
the  day  before. 

During  that  day's  ride  no  large  animals  had  been 
seen.  Scattered  over  the  prairie  at  frequent  intervals 
were  the  white  bones  of  buffalo  killed  long  ago,  but 
no  quadruped  larger  than  a  prairie  dog  or  a  cotton- 
tail showed  itself. 

Through  the  day,  as  he  rode  along,  the  country  be- 
came more  and  more  broken ;  the  small  streams  which 
he  crossed  flowed  at  the  bottom  of  deep  valleys  walled 
in  by  high,  steep  bluffs,  and  the  pines  and  spruces  of 
the  mountains  seemed  to  be  coming  closer  and  closer 
to  him.  At  length,  after  descending  the  long  hill,  he 
found  himself  in  the  bottom  of  a  rather  large  stream, 
and  remembering  Joe's  directions,  turned  to  the  left 
and  followed  it  up  toward  the  mountains.  At  length 
it  forked,  and  at  first  he  could  not  determine  which 
branch  of  the  stream  to  take,  so  he  stopped,  got  off 
his  horse,  and  waited  for  the  wagon  to  come  up. 

Presently  he  saw  it  coming  down  the  hill,  driving 
toward  him.  Just  before  it  reached  him  he  saw,  a  mile 
or  two  above  him  on  the  river,  several  large  animals 
hurrying  down  the  bluff.  The  distance  was  so  great 
that  he  could  not  tell  what  they  were,  but  thought  they 
acted  like  horses.  After  the  wagon  had  come  up  and 
he  had  learned  which  way  they  were  going,  he  mounted 
to  go  on,  and  just  as  he  did  so  a  bunch  of  about 


66        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

twenty  horses,  herded  by  two  men,  burst  out  of  the 
brush  a  mile  ahead  of  the  wagon,  dashed  across  the 
wide  bottom  and  up  the  bluffs  on  the  north  side  of  the 
valley. 

"  What  do  you  make  of  that,  Hugh  ?  "  asked  Jack. 

"  Well,  I  don't  know,  son,"  said  Hugh.  "  It  looks 
as  if  there  were  a  couple  of  men  there  that  wanted  to 
get  away  and  not  be  seen.  What  do  you  think,  Joe? 
Are  any  of  the  people  camped  up  in  this  direction?  " 

"  I  guess  not,"  said  Joe.  "  I  think  maybe  those 
men  have  been  stealing  horses  and  don't  want  anybody 
to  see  them." 

"  That's  the  way  it  looks  to  me,"  said  Hugh.  "  But 
where  have  the  horses  been  taken  from?  We  don't 
know  and  I  reckon  it's  no  business  of  ours,  and  we'd 
better  go  right  along." 

"  I  guess  they  saw  us  coming  a  long  way  off,  Hugh," 
said  Jack.  "  Only  a  little  while  ago  I  saw  some  of 
those  horses  come  down  the  bluffs,  away  above  where 
they  came  out  of  the  bottom  just  now.  The  men  must 
have  seen  me  coming  and  begun  to  gather  up  their 
horses  and  then  start  them  on  to  get  out  of  the  way." 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  it's  no  business  of  ours.  We'd 
better  keep  on  and  attend  to  our  own  affairs.  Of 
course,  if  we  knew  who  these  horses  had  been  taken 
from  it  would  be  different ;  but  it  isn't  like  it  was  with 
us  that  year  when  we  came  down  through  the  Park 
and  had  to  go  and  steal  those  horses  from  Black  Jack 
Dowling." 

Joe  shook  his  head  solemnly  and  said,  "  I  don't  want 
no  more  of  that  sort  of  thing,"  while  Jack  said,  "  That 
was  sure  a  ticklish  time.  I'll  never  forget  how  I  felt 
that  night  when  we  were  driving  those  horses  off." 


OFF    FOR    THE    MOUNTAINS  67 

"  Very  well,"  said  Hugh,  "  let's  go  on  to  where 
those  fellows  came  out  of  the  brush,  and  see  whether 
there's  any  sign  there  that  will  tell  us  who  they  are." 

When  they  reached  the  trail  made  by  the  horses  in 
crossing  Jack  rode  up  to  the  edge  of  the  brush  and 
said,  "  Why,  I  believe  these  people  have  been  here 
some  time.  There's  a  plain  trail  leading  into  these 
willow-." 

"  Hold  on  a  minute,  son,"  said  Hugh,  and  he  jumped 
down  from  the  wagon  and  went  over  to  Jack,  and  the 
two  followed  the  trail  on  foot  into  the  brush.  Evi- 
dently the  people  had  been  there  for  some  time,  for  the 
grass  and  weeds  were  worn  down  where  they  had 
passed  to  and  from  the  stream  to  a  little  camp  con- 
cealed in  the  thick  willows.  Here  was  a  place  where 
a  fire  had  been  built,  and  a  little  shelter  of  willow 
stems,  built  something  like  a  sweat-house,  in  which  the 
men  had  evidently  slept.  A  little  inspection  of  the  tiny 
camping  ground  showed  that  the  men  had  had  no 
bread  or  coffee,  for  there  were  no  coffee  grounds  lying 
about,  nor  was  there  any  place  on  the  ground  where 
a  coffee  pot  had  stood,  and  no  crusts  or  crumbs  of 
bread.  It  seemed  that  they  had  been  cooking  their 
dinner  when  Hugh  and  his  party  had  come  in  sight, 
and  this  was  part  of  some  small  black  animal,  prob- 
ably a  dog.  Bits  of  the  hide  with  the  hair  singed  off 
were  found  about  the  fire,  and  on  one  piece  were  the 
stumps  of  the  ears,  the  tips  having  been  burned  off. 
In  all  respects,  the  campers  seemed  to  have  been  poorly 
provided ;  but  they  were  white  men ;  the  tracks  of  the 
shoes  told  that. 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  don't  know  who  these  men 
are,  nor  what  they've  been  doing,  but  it  looks  to  me 


68        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

as  if  they  had  been  hiding  here  with  a  bunch  of  horses, 
maybe  animals  that  they  have  stolen  over  in  Canada. 
Anyhow,  they  haven't  taken  any  horses  of  ours,  and 
we  may  as  well  go  on." 

When  they  reported  at  the  wagon,  Joe  could  throw 
no  light  on  the  occurrence,  and,  giving  up  the  riddle, 
they  kept  on  up  the  valley.  A  few  miles  further  on 
they  turned  off  to  the  right,  over  some  low  ridges,  into 
another  valley  overgrown  with  willows,  which  came 
directly  from  the  mountains.  Here  Jack,  as  he  drove 
the  horses  ahead  of  the  wagon,  started  several  sharp- 
tailed  grouse,  and  at  one  crossing  of  a  little  stream 
saw  a  few  elk  tracks,  but  no  four-footed  game.  Only 
once,  toward  the  end  of  the  afternoon,  did  he  see 
anything  larger  than  a  bird  or  a  ground  squirrel ;  then 
a  great  gray  wolf  got  up  from  a  hill  where  he  had 
been  lying,  five  or  six  hundred  yards  away,  and  trotted 
slowly  off  out  of  sight. 

They  followed  the  valley  toward  the  mountains  until 
late  in  the  afternoon,  when  they  came  to  a  broad,  heavy 
trail,  made,  Hugh  said,  by  the  carts  of  the  Red  River 
halfbreeds  in  their  journeyings  north  and  south  along 
the  mountains.  It  was  a  rough  road  for  a  wagon  and 
required  careful  driving,  but  they  made  fairly  good 
progress. 

Shortly  after  they  had  left  Milk  River  it  had  grown 
cloudy,  and  now  the  wind  blew  and  a  storm  threatened. 
Hugh  called  to  Jack,  who  was  not  far  ahead  of  the 
wagon,  telling  him  to  look  out  for  a  place  to  camp  and 
to  stop  at  the  first  one  he  found.  A  little  later,  a 
small  stream  appeared  on  the  trail,  and  on  the  other 
side  of  it  was  a  little  meadow,  where  there  would  be 
grass  for  the  horses. 


OFF    FOR    THE    MOUNTAINS  69 

The  trail  went  down  to  the  creek  and  plunged  over 
a  three-foot  bank,  and  Jack  held  up  his  hand  to  stop 
the  wagon,  which  was  following  close  behind  him.  It 
took  a  little  riding  up  and  down  the  stream  to  find  a 
place  where  the  wagon  could  cross,  but  at  length  they 
got  over  and  made  camp.  Before  the  horses  were 
turned  out,  however,  a  cold  rainstorm  began,  and  by 
the  time  the  tent  was  up  and  the  fire  started  all  hands 
were  wet  and  uncomfortable,  but  the  warmth  of  the 
fire  soon  made  them  feel  better.  After  supper  they 
sat  about  in  the  tent,  chatting  over  the  events  of  the 
day  and  the  probabilities  of  the  morrow.  The  rain 
still  fell,  though  the  wind  had  ceased,  and  they  were 
warm  and  comfortable. 

Before  daylight  the  next  morning  Jack  was  roused 
by  a  rasping  sound  made  by  something  scratching 
against  the  canvas  of  the  tent.  He  raised  himself  on 
his  elbow,  but  of  course  could  see  nothing,  and  was 
about  to  lie  down  again  when  Hugh  spoke  and  said, 
"  It's  snow  on  the  tent,"  and  a  moment  later  the  sound 
was  repeated,  and  then  Jack  saw  that  it  was  made  by 
wet  snow  sliding  down  the  steep  roof  above  them. 
When  day  came  he  looked  out  of  the  tent  door  and 
saw  that  the  ground  was  white  with  snow,  but  that  it 
was  not  cold,  and  the  rapidly  falling  flakes  melted  as 
they  touched  his  clothing.  Joe  had  gone  out  to  look 
for  the  horses,  which  could  be  easily  tracked,  and  pres- 
entlv  came  back  driving  the  bunch,  which  he  had  found 
close  at  hand.  They  were  caught  and  tied  to  the 
wagon,  so  that  as  soon  as  the  storm  should  cease  a 
start  might  be  made. 

Xot  long  after  breakfast  it  stopped  snowing,  and 
camp  was  quickly  broken  and  the  party  moved  on. 


70         TACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

After  a  little  rough  traveling,  up  high  hills  and  down 
into  deep  valleys  and  across  narrow  streams,  they  came 
upon  a  long  slope  dotted  here  and  there  with  young 
pines,  and  a  couple  of  hours'  drive  brought  them  to 
the  top  of  a  ridge  from  which  they  looked  down  into 
the  valley  of  the  St.  Mary's  Lakes. 

The  scene  was  beautiful.  The  sky  had  not  yet 
cleared  and  a  heavy  fog  hung  about  the  ridge,  so  that 
they  could  see  only  a  short  distance  on  either  side; 
but  in  the  valley  below  there  was  little  mist,  so  that 
the  lower  end  of  the  upper  lake  and  the  whole  lower 
lake  were  visible.  Rounded  hills  covered  with  pale 
green  quaking  aspens  rose  sharply  from  the  water,  and 
here  and  there  a  little  open  park  where  the  green  grass 
of  summer  showed  against  the  silver  poplars  or  the 
black  pines.  The  mist  clouds  were  moving  and  chang- 
ing constantly,  and  the  travelers  could  not  see  the 
mountain  tops,  but  once,  a  long  way  up  the  upper  lake, 
Jack  saw,  or  thought  he  saw,  the  stern  black  faces  of 
tremendous  cliffs  rising  from  the  very  edge  of  the 
water.  Now  and  then  a  soft  fold  of  mist  dropped 
from  the  overhanging  clouds  and  floated  from  the 
upper,  across  the  lower,  lake,  now  hiding  and  again 
revealing  the  beauty  of  the  scene. 

"  Isn't  that  a  wonderful  scene,  Hugh  ?  "  asked  Jack. 
"  This  is  the  first  time  I've  ever  seen  the  upper  lake, 
and  I  had  no  idea  how  beautiful  it  was.  All  I've  seen 
before  is  the  lower  end  of  the  lower  lake  and  the 
river.  There's  so  much  more  of  it  than  I  thought 
there  was." 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  it's  surely  a  pretty  sight,  but 
on  a  clear  day  it's  prettier  than  it  is  now." 

"  Yes,"  said  Jack,  "  I  suppose  so;  but  just  think  of 


OFF    FOR    THE    MOUNTAINS  71 

the  mystery  of  this  fog.  It  might  hide  all  sorts  of 
things.     Nobody  can  tell  what  there  is  beyond  it." 

For  a  little  while  they  sat  there,  looking  at  the  view, 
and  then  came  the  question  of  getting  down  the  steep 
hills  to  the  shores  of  the  lake. 

"How  are  we  going  to  get  down,  Joe?"  asked 
Hugh.  "If  we  start  down  here  I'm  afraid  this  wagon 
will  get  away  from  us,  and  nobody  knows  where  it 
will  go  to.  Can't  we  get  around  to  the  road  that  goes 
down  to  the  foot  of  the  lake  ?  " 

"  No,"  said  Joe,  "  it's  an  awful  long  way  down 
there ;  bad  road,  too ;  lots  of  gulches  to  cross,  and 
maybe  break  a  tongue,  maybe  break  an  axle." 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  don't  like  this  a  little  bit, 
but  if  there's  no  other  way,  why,  we'll  have  to  try  it. 
Luckily  there's  no  load  in  the  wagon,  and  maybe  if  we 
rough-lock  the  wheels  and  go  mighty  slowly  we  can 
make  it ;  but  if  that  wagon  ever  gets  started  with  those 
horses  ahead  of  it,  it  will  sure  kill  the  horses  and 
smash  the  wagon." 

Getting  out  their  ropes  and  a  chain  that  there  was 
in  the  wagon,  they  made  preparations  for  locking  the 
wheels. 

"  But,  look  here,"  said  Hugh ;  "  locking  wheels  isn't 
going  to  do  us  much  good.  Don't  you  see  that  if  we 
lock  the  wheels  we're  just  turning  each  pair  into  a 
pair  of  runners,  and  on  this  snow  the  wagon  will  go 
faster  that  way  than  it  would  if  the  wheels  were 
free." 

Hugh  got  out  the  ax,  however,  and  cutting  a  green 
quaking  aspen  stick  lashed  it  to  the  wagon  so  that  it 
dragged  on  the  ground  just  in  front  of  the  hind 
wheels,  and  was  held  down  by  them.     Then  with  Joe 


J2        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

on  foot,  driving  on  the  upper  side  of  the  wagon,  and 
Hugh  and  Jack  on  foot  with  rope  tied  to  the  tail  of 
the  wagon,  they  slowly  started  down  the  hill.  It  was 
ticklish  business.  The  slope  was  hard,  grass-covered 
gravel,  and  on  this  were  two  or  three  inches  of  snow. 
Sometimes  the  drag  held  and  sometimes  it  slid.  Hugh 
and  Jack  tried  hard  to  keep  the  tail  of  the  wagon  from 
swinging  around  and  starting  down  hill  backward. 
Gradually  they  worked  their  way  down  the  hill,  and 
presently,  just  as  they  were  getting  near  a  level  piece 
of  ground  which  promised  easier  going,  the  wagon  be- 
gan to  slide,  and  for  a  little  it  looked  as  if  it  would  get 
away  from  them.  Joe  was  ready,  however,  and  in  re- 
sponse to  Hugh's  shout,  guided  his  horses  into  a 
thicket  of  young  aspens,  where  the  wagon  stopped, 
and  by  cutting  a  road  through  these  they  worked  down 
the  slope  until  they  found  better  traveling  and  got 
below  the  snow.  Then  Jack  climbed  back  up  the  hill, 
got  his  horses,  and  followed  the  wagon. 

He  found  that  it  had  stopped  on  the  shores  of  a 
little  curving  bay  near  the  head  of  the  lake,  where 
there  was  good  feed  for  the  horses  and  plenty  of  wood. 
A  little  trout  brook  coming  down  from  the  hills  tin- 
kled pleasantly  at  one  end  of  the  meadow  and  was 
shaded  by  half  a  dozen  ancient  cottonwood  trees.  Joe 
and  Hugh  were  putting  up  the  tent  as  he  reached  the 
camp,  and  as  soon  as  he  had  unsaddled  he  helped  them. 

Though  the  sky  was  still  overcast,  the  air  at  the 
level  of  the  lake  was  clear,  and  one  could  see  a  long 
way.  Jack  looked  out  over  the  lake,  now  absolutely 
without  a  ripple,  and  saw  a  few  ducks  swimming  about. 

After  supper,  as  there  was  still  a  little  daylight  left, 
he  jointed  his  rod  and  began  to  fish,  at  first  without 


OFF    FOR    THE    MOUNTAINS  73 

any  success,  but  casting  out  into  the  lake  at  the  point 
where  the  brook  flowed  into  it,  he  got  several  rises, 
and  hooked  a  small  trout,  weighing  perhaps  a  quarter 
of  a  pound,  which  he  soon  brought  to  land. 

After  a  while  Joe  left  camp  and  sauntered  out  to 
join  Jack.  It  was  the  first  time  that  he  had  seen  a 
trout  rod,  and  when  he  saw  how  slender  and  how 
limber  it  was  he  shook  his  head  and  said,  "  What  do 
you  expect  to  do  with  that  fishing  pole?  " 

"  Why,"  said  Jack,  "  I  want  to  catch  some  fish,  as 
I  did  the  other  morning." 

"  Did  you  catch  them  with  that  pole?  "  asked  Joe. 

"  Yes,"  said  Jack,  "  caught  'em  with  this,  and  I 
hope  to  catch  some  more  with  it." 

"  My!  "  said  Joe;  "  what's  the  use  of  fishing  with  a 
little  thing  like  that?  You  can't  catch  any  big  fish 
on  that.  It  will  break  right  off.  You  better  let  me 
go  back  into  the  willows  and  cut  you  a  pole  that  you 
can  catch  fish  with." 

Jack  laughed  a  little  as  he  replied :  "  Hold  on  a 
bit  and  see.  If  any  fish  will  rise  I  can  catch  them  with 
this  rod  if  I  can  catch  them  at  all." 

Joe  said  nothing,  but  waited,  and  presently  Jack 
got  a  rise  from  a  good  trout,  and,  fortunately,  hooked 
it.  The  fish  was  a  strong  one  and  darted  hither  and 
thither  with  splendid  rushes,  sometimes  making  the 
reel  scream  as  it  took  the  line,  which  Jack  slowly  re- 
covered whenever  he  could.  At  times  the  little  rod 
bent  almost  double,  and  more  than  once  Joe  said, 
"  Look  out,  you're  breaking  your  rod ; "  but  when  the 
fish  yielded,  the  pliant  bamboo  sprang  back  and  was 
straight  again.  At  length,  tired  out,  the  fish  turned 
on  its  side  and  Jack  brought  it  close  to  the  beach  and 


74         JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

told  Joe  to  go  and  grasp  it  by  the  gills  and  lift  it  from 
the  water.  Joe  did  so,  and  the  fish  proved  to  be  a 
splendid  great  trout  that  perhaps  weighed  two  pounds. 
After  the  fish  was  saved  Joe  wanted  to  look  at  the  rod. 
He  went  over  it  from  butt  to  tip,  feeling  it  between 
his  ringers  and  muttering  to  himself  in  his  astonish- 
ment that  so  slight  an  implement  should  have  caught 
so  big  a  fish. 


CHAPTER    VI 

A    SHEEP     HUNT 

The  sun  had  hardly  risen  the  next  morning-  before  the 
camp  was  astir,  and  while  they  were  breakfasting  on 
the  excellent  trout  which  had  been  caught  the  night 
before,  the  question  was  discussed  as  to  what  they 
should  do  now.  Immediately  across  the  lake  rose  a 
high,  castellated  pile  of  rock,  with  almost  vertical 
sides,  which  the  boys  had  recognized  as  the  mountain 
under  which  Joe  had  killed  a  mountain  sheep  with  his 
arrows  some  years  before.  Both  boys  had  spoken  of 
this,  and  Hugh  presently  said  to  them,  "  Why  don't 
you  boys  go  up  there  to-day  and  get  a  sheep.  Fish 
are  good,  of  course,  but  we  want  some  fresh  meat, 
and  a  good  fat  sheep,  if  you  can  find  one,  will  help 
us  out  amazingly.  We  ought  to  have  something  to 
eat  now,  because  these  flies  here  are  going  to  drive  us 
away  from  the  lake  and  we'll  have  to  get  high  up 
into  the  mountains.  It's  true  we  may  find  game  any- 
where, but  it  will  be  lots  better  to  have  some  fresh 
meat  in  the  pack  than  to  go  along  without  it,  and 
then  perhaps  have  storms  or  bad  luck  for  two  or  three 
days  and  have  to  live  on  bacon.  The  flies  don't  seem 
very  bad  this  morning,  but  it's  fly  time,  and  they  may 
tackle  us  any  day  and  be  mighty  troublesome  to  us 
and  to  the  stock." 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  there's  nothing  I'd  like  better 
than  to  get  up  on  that  hill  again,  and  if  Joe  feels  like 
coming  I'd  like  to  start  right  off." 

75 


76         JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

"  I'm  ready,"  said  Joe.     "  Come  on." 

It  took  only  a  short  time  to  bring  in  the  saddle 
horses,  and  before  long  the  boys  were  mounted  and 
riding  off  over  the  Indian  trail  that  led  toward  the 
inlet. 

The  inlet  is  a  deep,  swift  river  which  flows  through 
a  strip  of  land  perhaps  two  miles  long  by  a  mile  wide, 
which  separates  the  lower  lake  from  the  upper,  and 
carries  the  drainage  of  all  the  great  mountain  region 
about  the  upper  lake.  The  lower  end  of  this  strip  of 
land  is  wooded  with  spruces  and  cottonwoods,  but  the 
upper  end  is  a  wide  meadow  covered  with  heavy  grass, 
where,  in  old  times,  buffalo,  elk,  and  deer  often  fed. 
The  Indian  trail  which  the  boys  were  following  was 
originally  a  game  trail  made  by  the  mountain  bison 
and  the  elk.  It  wound  through  the  bare,  rolling  hills, 
now  and  then  crossing  some  tiny  stream  running 
down  from  the  high  land,  and  at  last  plunged  to  the 
level  of  the  inlet,  where  a  large  swift  stream  spread 
itself  over  a  graveled  bar  and  twisted  in  and  out  among 
the  willows  and  aspens.  After  crossing  this  they 
reached  the  flat  of  the  inlet,  and  presently  the  trafi 
came  out  into  the  open  meadow,  and  a  mile  further 
on  they  rode  down  into  the  main  inlet  stream.  This 
was  so  deep  that  both  the  boys  had  to  tuck  their  feet 
up  behind  the  saddles  to  keep  from  getting  wet,  and 
in  one  place  it  looked  as  if  the  horses  might  have  to 
swim.  The  crossing  was  a  short  one,  however,  and 
presently  they  emerged  on  the  other  side,  and  in  a 
very  few  moments  began  to  climb  the  hill  just  oppo- 
site the  lower  end  of  the  lake. 

The  hills  here,  though  smooth,  were  steep  and  fof 
the  most  part  covered  with  a  thick  growth  of  small 


A    SHEEP    HUNT  y7 

aspens.  Here  and  there  along  the  dim  trail  were  little 
open  parks,  in  one  or  two  of  which  were  fresh  elk 
tracks.  As  the  boys  climbed  higher,  the  aspens  grad- 
ually gave  way  to  pines,  and  then  to  spruces.  The 
way  grew  steeper  and  more  difficult,  and  at  last,  when 
they  reached  the  top  of  a  high  hogback,  above  which 
the  bare  rocks  rose  sharply,  they  left  their  horses  and 
began  the  ascent  on  foot.  Here  the  snow  still  lay  on 
the  ground  and  made  the  climb  harder,  because  it  was 
impossible  to  see  on  just  what  one  was  stepping.  It 
was  rough  and  difficult,  and  the  slope  was  so  steep 
that  sometimes  the  boys  had  to  scramble  along  on 
all  fours.  At  first  it  was  over  smooth  grass  made 
doubly  slippery  by  the  snow  which  covered  it;  then 
came  the  piled-up  rocks,  which  in  past  ages  had  tum- 
bled from  the  face  of  the  mountains,  and  here  progress, 
though  slow,  was  easier,  because  the  footing  was  more 
secure.  It  was  on  this  slope  that  they  passed  the  last 
few  stunted  spruces,  and  when  they  reached  the  top, 
they  had  left  all  the  trees  behind. 

Nothing  was  to  be  seen  save  a  wide  expanse  of  gray 
rock  and  white  snow,  which  ran  up  to  a  cliff  whose 
top  was  hidden  by  dense  mist.  All  the  morning  the 
clouds  had  been  hanging  about  the  mountains,  and 
now  the  boys  were  fairly  among  them.  They  could 
see  but  a  short  distance  in  any  direction,  and  the  pros- 
pects for  hunting  were  very  poor. 

"What  do  you  think,  Joe?"  asked  Jack.  "Shall 
we  sit  down  and  wait  for  it  to  clear,  or  keep  on?" 

"  Well,"  said  Joe,  "  not  much  use  hunting  when  it's 
like  this.  Any  animals  about  are  sure  to  see  you 
before  you  see  them.  I'd  stop  here  and  wait  a  little 
while  and  see  what  happens." 


78        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

"  All  right,"  said  Jack,  "  let's  crawl  in  under  this 
rock  and  sit  there.  Our  eyes  are  not  much  good  to 
us  now,  but  anyhow  we  can  listen  and  see  whether  we 
can  hear  anything  moving  around.  I  guess  there  are 
sheep  up  here  all  right,  and  if  we  can't  get  them  to-day 
we  can  to-morrow." 

"  That's  so,"  said  Joe.  "  There  are  sure  sheep  here. 
This  is  a  great  place  for  them.  You  know  Old 
Brockey?" 

"  Yes,"  said  Jack. 

"  He's  always  told  me  that  there  are  always  sheep 
on  this  mountain  in  summer.  They  live  around  there 
in  that  valley  where  you  and  I  killed  one.  In  winter 
they  live  high  up  on  the  side  toward  the  lake,  but  they 
are  always  here.     The  only  thing  is  to  find  them." 

"  Yes,"  said  Jack,  "  we've  got  to  keep  looking  for 
them  until  we  do." 

The  boys  sat  there  for  an  hour  or  two,  pretty  un- 
comfortable, for  both  were  wet  up  to  the  knees.  A 
cool  breeze  was  blowing  along  the  mountainside,  and 
the  dense  fog,  which  by  this  time  had  settled  down 
over  the  hills,  chilled  the  boys  to  the  bone;  so  that 
after  a  little  while  they  got  up  and  began  to  run  up 
and  down  over  the  small  level  space  near  the  boulder 
which  sheltered  them,  beating  their  arms  against  their 
breasts  in  the  effort  to  keep  warm.  Presently,  how- 
ever, and  almost  without  warning,  the  sky  grew 
lighter,  the  fog  lifted,  and  they  could  look  out  over 
the  mountainside  and  down  on  the  quiet  dark  green 
lakes,  and  as  they  looked  the  sun  came  out  through  the 
clouds,  sparkled  on  the  wet  foliage  below  them,  and 
changed  the  somber  lakes  into  patches  of  brilliant  blue. 
After  a  little  the  sun  reached  the  boys,  and  it  was 


/ 


A    SHEEP    HUNT  79 


wonderful  to  see  how  their  spirits  rose  and  how  soon 
they  got  warm.  At  once  they  started  on,  gradually 
working  up  the  rough  slope  until  they  had  nearly 
reached  the  foot  of  the  great  wall  of  rock  which  over- 
hung it.  They  made  their  way  slowly  around  the 
northern  point  of  the  mountain  and  into  the  rocky 
valley  which  separates  it  from  the  next  mountain  to 
the  northward,  but  almost  as  soon  as  they  entered  this 
valley  the  weather  changed  again.  Black  clouds 
dropped  down  and  a  fierce  wind  began  to  blow,  bring- 
ing with  it  now  and  then  blinding  snow  squalls.  The 
fog  did  not  descend  as  low  as  before,  but  every  now 
and  then  a  flurry  of  snow  blotted  out  the  whole  scene. 

Jack  and  Joe  backed  up  against  a  huge  boulder  out 
of  the  wind  and  waited.  As  they  sat  there,  a  curious 
squeak,  almost  like  that  of  a  little  child's  penny  trum- 
pet, came  from  the  rocks  just  below  them,  and  both 
boys  recognized  it  as  the  bleating  cry  of  the  little  chief 
hare.  Half  a  dozen  small  birds  alighted  close  to  the 
boys,  as  if  seeking  shelter  from  the  wind,  and  with 
soft  whistling  twitter  walked  about  on  the  stones  and 
on  the  snow,  apparently  picking  up  food.  They  were 
so  close  that  Jack  could  see  their  gray  crowns  and 
rosy  breasts  and  backs,  and  he  thought  them  about  the 
prettiest  birds  he  had  ever  seen. 

"  What  are  they,  Joe?  "  he  whispered ;  but  Joe  could 
give  him  little  help.  He  said,  "  Snow  birds,  I  guess. 
Anyway,  they  only  come  in  cold  weather.  I  reckon 
they  live  high  up  on  the  mountains." 

Presently  the  little  gray-crowned  finches  disap- 
peared, and  only  a  few  minutes  afterward  they  saw 
a  white-tailed  ptarmigan  walking  about  among  the 
rocks  just  below  them.     Then  the  sun  came  out  and 


80        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

the  wind  went  down  and  they  started  once  more  on 
their  hunt. 

They  were  following  a  sheep  trail  which  led  along 
the  rocks  when  suddenly  Jack,  as  his  head  arose  above 
a  rise,  saw  in  a  little  meadow  below  him  the  hips  and 
body  of  a  feeding  animal.  Instantly  he  slowly  sank 
out  of  sight,  and  Joe  imitated  him.  Jack  turned  to 
Joe  and  made  the  sign  for  mountain  sheep  and  pointed 
in  the  direction  of  the  animal.  Joe  signed  to  him  to 
go  ahead,  and  he  crept  forward,  and  when  he  took 
another  peep  he  saw  a  two-year-old  ram  alone,  feeding 
in  the  little  meadow  in  the  valley  below.  The  distance 
was  a  little  more  than  a  hundred  yards  and  the  shot 
seemed  an  easy  one.  Jack  motioned  Joe  to  come 
beside  him  and  said,  "You  take  the  shot,  Joe;  don't 
you  want  to  ?  " 

"  No,"  said  Joe,  "  you  shoot.  I'm  out  here  all  the 
time.  I  have  plenty  of  chances  to  kill  animals.  Now 
you  try  that  sheep,  and  see  what  you  can  do." 

"  All  right,"  said  Jack,  and  creeping  forward  to 
where  a  larger  piece  of  rock  crowned  the  knoll,  he 
rose  to  his  knees  behind  it,  and,  resting  his  rifle 
against  the  side  of  it,  prepared  to  shoot.  The  sheep 
was  still  feeding  and  had  his  tail  toward  Jack,  but 
was  considerably  below  the  boy's  position,  so  Jack 
aimed  at  the  animal's  back,  just  in  front  of  the  hips, 
and  drawing  a  fine  sight,  fired.  The  ram  fell,  and  the 
boys  scrambled  down  to  it,  and  found  it  lying  dead. 
The  shot  had  entered  the  back  just  to  the  right  of 
the  backbone  and  had  passed  forward  and  downward 
through  the  lungs  and  heart. 

"  Good  shot,"  said  Joe.  "  It's  pretty  hard  to  shoot 
down  hill  that  way ;  'most  always  shoot  over." 


A    SHEEP    HUNT  81 

"Yes,"  said  Jack,  "that's  so;  but  you  see  I  had 
two  or  three  chances,  because  his  hips  were  toward 
me  and  that  gave  me  a  long  surface  to  fire  at.  I  made 
up  my  mind  that  I'd  shoot  at  the  kidneys,  and  if  I 
didn't  hit  them  I  had  the  chance  of  cutting  his  lungs 
and  heart  and  also  of  breaking  his  back." 

"  Yes,"  said  Joe,  "  that's  so.  He  gave  you  good 
shot." 

"Well,"  said  Jack,  "we've  got  to  get  this  beast 
back  to  camp,  or  at  least  as  much  of  him  as  we  can 
carry,  and  I  suppose  we  may  as  well  get  at  it." 

When  their  knives  were  out  it  did  not  take  long  to 
skin  the  sheep.     The  head  was  not  worth  taking  along. 

When,  however,  it  came  to  carrying  the  animal  they 
found  it  was  much  too  heavy  to  be  transported  in  one 
trip.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  neither  of  the  boys  was 
stout  enough  to  take  half  the  sheep  on  his  back.  They 
were  obliged  to  quarter  it. 

"  Tell  you  what,"  said  Joe,  "  we  don't  know  much." 

"  Well,"  replied  Jack,  "  I  guess  that's  so;  but  what 
do  you  mean  ?  " 

"  Why,"  said  Joe,  "  next  time  we  come  out  hunting 
each  one  of  us  better  take  a  sack  and  two  or  three 
strings  in  his  pocket,  and  then  if  we  kill  anything  we 
can  cut  the  meat  off  the  bones  and  put  it  in  the  sack, 
and  that  saves  all  the  trouble  of  carrying  the  bones 
into  camp." 

"  That's  so,"  said  Jack.  "  What  a  pity  we  didn't 
think  of  that  before.  But  look  here;  hold  on;  why 
can't  we  make  a  sack  out  of  this  sheep's  hide,  cut  the 
meat  off  the  bones  and  put  it  in  the  hide,  and  then 
carry  the  hide  between  us  on  a  pole  all  the  way  to 
the  horses  ?  " 


S2         JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

"  Well,"  said  Joe,  "  maybe  we  could  do  that.  That's 
a  good  idea.  It's  a  pretty  heavy  load  to  carry  that 
way.    It's  going  to  be  hard  to  climb  up  the  hill." 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  let's  try  it  anyhow.  I  don't 
care  much  about  making  two  trips  from  here  to  the 
horses  if  we  can  avoid  it." 

Accordingly  the  hide  was  spread  out  on  the  rocks, 
flesh  side  up,  and  the  boys  cut  away  all  the  meat  from 
the  sheep's  skeleton.  Practically  the  only  bones  they 
took  with  them  were  the  shoulder  blades,  everything 
else  being  cut  out  and  left  there.  This  meat  was  care- 
fully piled  up  on  the  sheep's  hide,  and  this  was  folded 
over  and  tied  with  strings  cut  from  the  sheep's  hide 
and  passed  through  little  holes  made  in  the  border 
of  the  hide. 

"  Jack,"  said  Joe,  "  do  you  know  that  this  is  the 
way  our  people  used  to  carry  meat  into  camp,  away 
far  back,  long  before  they  had  horses,  and  when  they 
had  only  a  few  dogs  ?  " 

"  No,"  said  Jack,  "  I  never  heard  that  before.  Tell 
me  how  it  was." 

"  Not  now,"  said  Joe.  "  The  first  thing  we've  got 
to  do  is  to  see  whether  we  can  carry  this  load  to  the 
horses." 

Going  down  a  little  way  into  the  valley  they  cut  a 
stout  quaking  aspen  pole,  trimmed  off  the  branches 
and  cut  it  off  to  about  twelve  feet  in  length.  Then, 
returning  to  the  hide,  the  skin  of  the  shanks  was  tied 
about  the  pole  so  closely  that  the  load  of  meat  lay 
immediately  under  it  and  had  no  swing  from  side  to 
side. 

When  Jack  took  his  end  of  the  pole  and  lifted  it 
on  his  shoulder  the  load  seemed  much  heavier  than  he 


A    SHEEP    HUNT  83 

had  supposed.  However,  Joe  raised  his  end,  and  the 
two  staggered  forward,  at  first  with  more  or  less  diffi- 
culty, but  more  steadily  as  they  got  used  to  it.  Pres- 
ently they  began  to  climb  the  steep  trail  which  would 
take  them  over  the  mountain  to  a  point  above  where 
the  horses  were.  Every  now  and  then  they  had  to 
stop  and  put  down  their  load  to  rest  and  puff  for  a 
moment  or  two,  until  they  recovered  their  wind.  After 
stopping  two  or  three  times,  they  learned  to  choose 
a  place  where  the  load  could  be  deposited  on  the  top 
of  a  high  rock,  so  that  it  would  not  be  necessary  each 
time  to  lift  it  from  the  ground.  It  was  slow  and 
weary  work,  but  some  progress  was  made,  and  at  last 
they  reached  the  top  of  the  shoulder,  whence  the  way 
would  all  be  over  level  ground  or  down  hill.  As  they 
were  sitting  there,  resting  and  not  talking,  Joe  put 
out  his  hand  and  touched  Jack,  and  pointing  down  the 
hill,  showed  him  a  marten,  resplendent  in  his  glossy 
brown  coat,  running  along  and  whisking  his  black- 
tipped  tail.  The  animal  did  not  see  the  boys,  and 
after  he  had  passed  out  of  sight,  Joe  said,  "  You  bet 
your  life  that  fellow  will  find  that  sheep  skeleton  be- 
fore night  and  he'll  have  a  good  time  there." 

A  little  later  the  boys  reached  the  top  of  the  slope, 
and  looking  down  they  could  see  the  horses  tied  to  the 
trees  below.  They  took  their  load  off  the  stick,  tied 
the  strips  of  skin  of  the  legs  tightly  together,  and 
then  rolled  the  bundle  over  the  top  of  the  ledge,  watch- 
ing it  as  it  rolled  and  bounded  down  the  hill,  and 
finally  stopped  among  the  trees  only  a  hundred  yards 
or  so  from  the  horses.  Then  they  began  to  climb 
down  the  rocks,  and  before  long  had  reached  their 
animals. 


84        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

"  Now,  Joe,"  said  Jack,  "  how  are  we  going  to 
carry  this  meat  to  camp?  " 

"  I  reckon  we'd  better  pack  it  on  my  horse  and 
I  can  walk,"  said  Joe.     "  It  isn't  far." 

"  Well,  but  how  are  you  going  to  get  across  the 
creek  ?  " 

"  Oh,  I  can  ride  on  top  of  the  load  for  a  little  short 
way  like  that,"  declared  Joe. 

"  I  don't  know,  though,"  he  went  on,  "  whether 
these  horses  will  pack  fresh  meat  like  this,  but  we'll 
have  to  try." 

It  was  soon  evident  that  the  horses  would  strongly 
object  to  the  load,  and  it  was  not  until  Joe's  horse  had 
been  blinded  by  a  coat  that  the  boys  could  lift  the 
meat  across  the  saddle  and  lash  it  with  Joe's  lariat. 
After  that  had  been  done  and  the  blind  removed  from 
the  horse's  head  he  showed  a  good  deal  of  disposition 
to  buck,  but  at  last  thought  better  of  it,  and  when 
Jack  led  the  way  down  the  trail,  Joe's  horse  followed 
very  quietly. 

When  streams  had  to  be  crossed,  Joe  clambered  on 
the  load  of  meat,  and  they  reached  camp  long  before 
sundown  without  further  incident. 


CHAPTER    VII 

OLD-TIME    HUNTING    WAYS 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  when  they  rode  up  to  the  tent, 
"  I'm  glad  you  got  some  meat.  Now,  before  you  even 
unsaddle,  I'm  going  to  send  one  of  you  boys  up  into 
that  cottonwood  tree  there.  Knot  a  couple  of  those 
sling  ropes  together  and  let  us  haul  that  meat  up  above 
the  flies  if  we  can.  It'll  spoil  in  a  day  if  we  leave  it 
down  here  close  to  the  ground,  where  the  blow  flies 
can  get  at  it." 

The  wisdom  of  this  advice  was  recognized  at  once, 
and  Jack  promptly  scrambled  up  into  the  cottonwood 
and  made  his  way  into  the  lower  branches.  Joe  threw 
him  the  end  of  a  sling  rope  and  Jack  climbed  well  into 
the  tree,  and  then,  passing  the  rope  over  a  branch, 
the  meat  was  hauled  up  and  tied  thirty  or  forty  feet 
above  the  ground,  out  of  reach  of  the  flies  and  exposed 
to  the  breeze  which  blew  almost  constantly  up  or  down 
the  lake. 

As  they  sat  around  the  fire  that  night  after  supper 
Jack  said,  "  Hugh,  a  man  who  was  hunting  sheep  all 
the  time  would  get  to  have  mighty  good  wind, 
wouldn't  he?" 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  that's  surely  so.  Good  wind, 
strong  legs  and  a  mighty  steady  head  come  to  anyone 
who  hunts  sheep  or  goats  much.  You've  got  to  be 
climbing  up  or  down  pretty  much  all  the  time.  You 
must  look  for  your  game  on  the  high  peaks  and  ridges 


86        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

and  along  the  cliffs.  Of  course,  where  sheep  are  plenty 
you  can  follow  the  sheep  trails,  but  sometimes  it's 
just  pretty  straight  up  and  down  climbing  over  the 
rocks  and  in  places  where,  if  a  man  lost  his  footing, 
he  would  roll  a  long  way.  I  never  minded  climbing 
over  the  rocks,  no  matter  how  steep  they  were,  but 
sometimes  it's  wearying  work  to  crawl  around  over 
the  shale,  that  yields  and  slips  under  your  feet,  and 
where  for  every  foot  you  go  up  you  slip  back  nine 
inches;  and  of  course,  when  the  mountains  are  cov- 
ered with  snow  and  ice  it's  harder  yet,  because  you 
never  can  be  quite  sure  of  your  foothold." 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  there  are  some  Indians  that 
hunt  sheep  almost  altogether,  aren't  there?" 

"  Yes,"  replied  Hugh,  "  the  Sheep  Eaters  get  their 
name  from  the  fact  that  they  used  to  make  their 
main  living  by  hunting  sheep." 

"  I've  heard  of  the  Sheep  Eaters,"  said  Jack,  "  but 
I've  forgotten  who  they  are  and  where  they  lived. 
Tell  me  what  you  know  about  them,  won't  you?" 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  they  live  south  of  here  and 
their  main  range  used  to  be  somewhere  near  that 
country  that  we  went  through  two  or  three  years  ago, 
where  those  hot  springs  and  spouting  geysers  are. 
Sheep  Eaters,  as  I  understand  it,  are  a  band  of  the 
Bannocks,  and  the  Bannocks  are  relations  to  the 
Snakes. 

"  In  old  times  they  say  that  these  Sheep  Eaters  used 
to  make  drives  of  sheep.  They  would  build  a  lot  of 
blinds,  and  hide  along  the  trails  where  the  sheep  were 
accustomed  to  go  up  and  down  the  mountains,  and 
then  they'd  send  men  around  and  scare  the  sheep,  and 
when  they  came  down  near  the  blinds  the  Indians 


OLD-TIME    HUNTING    WAYS  87 

hidden  there  would  shoot  them.  Then,  of  course,  they 
used  to  still-hunt  them  with  bows  and  arrows.  I've 
heard  that  the  men  who  were  hunting  sheep  used  to 
carry  a  head  and  skin  and  cover  themselves  with  it  in 
part,  and  disguised  in  that  way,  used  to  get  up  within 
arrow  shot  of  the  game.  The  man's  legs  were  rubbed 
with  white  or  gray  clay,  and  if  he  went  along  in  a 
stooping  posture,  with  his  body  covered  with  the  ani- 
mal's skin  and  the  head,  it's  easy  to  see  how  he  might 
get  up  pretty  close  to  the  game.  I  read  a  book  once 
written  by  John  Franklin,  that  man,  you  know,  that 
was  lost  up  in  the  Arctic  a  good  many  years  ago  and 
about  whom  there  was  a  great  deal  of  excitement  at  the 
time,  in  which  he  told  how  the  Huskies  up  north  used 
to  hunt  caribou  something  the  same  way,  only  in  this 
case  there  were  two  men,  one  walking  behind  the 
other,  both  stooping  down  and  the  man  in  the  lead 
carrying  a  caribou's  head.  The  book  said  that  the 
rear  man  carried  the  two  guns,  and  that  the  man  in 
front,  who  carried  the  head,  imitated  the  deer  so  well 
that  sometimes  they  could  walk  right  up  to  the  edge  of 
the  herd.  Seems  to  me  I've  heard  something  of  the 
same  sort  about  Indians  using  the  antelope  head  in 
hunting  antelope." 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  that's  seems  queer.  I  don't 
believe  you  could  do  that  with  any  game  in  these  days." 

"  No,"  said  Hugh,  "  maybe  not,  but  you  must  re- 
member in  those  old  times  game  was  plenty ;  it  never 
was  scared  by  noises,  because  then  they  didn't  have 
any  guns,  and  the  people  in  any  range  of  mountain 
country  were  not  many  and  were  not  often  seen  by  the 
game.  Speaking  of  this  way  of  using  game  heads 
makes  me  think  of  a  story  that  Wolf  Voice  told  me 


88        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

about  something  that  his  grandfather  saw  a  great 
many  years  ago.  You  don't  know  Wolf  Voice,  of 
course,  but  he's  a  young  fellow — not  so  very  young 
either,  come  to  think  about  it;  he  must  be  a  middle- 
aged  man  by  this  time.  He's  half  Cheyenne  and  half 
Minitari,  and  he  did  some  considerable  scouting  for 
General  Miles  a  few  years  ago.  This  is  what  he  told 
me  that  his  grandfather  saw:  He  was  one  of  a  war 
party  of  Cheyennes  that  had  gone  off  to  try  and  take 
horses  from  the  Snakes.  One  morning  they  were 
traveling  along  through  the  mountains,  fifteen  or  six- 
teen of  them,  walking  through  a  deep  canyon.  Pres- 
ently one  of  them  saw  on  a  ledge  of  the  canyon  far 
above  them,  the  head  and  shoulders  of  a  big  mountain 
sheep,  which  seemed  to  be  looking  out  over  the  valley. 
The  man  pointed  it  out  to  the  other  members  of  the 
war  party,  and  they  watched  it  as  they  went  along. 
After  a  while  it  drew  back  from  the  ledge,  and  a  little 
later  they  saw  it  again,  further  along  the  canyon,  and 
it  stood  there  right  at  the  edge  of  the  precipice  and 
seemed  to  be  looking  up  and  down  the  valley.  The 
Cheyennes  kept  watching  it  as  they  went  along,  and 
presently  they  saw  a  mountain  lion  jump  on  the  sheep's 
back  from  another  ledge  above  it  and  both  animals  fell 
over  the  cliff,  a  long  way  before  they  struck  the  rocks 
below.  The  Cheyennes,  feeling  sure  that  the  sheep 
had  been  killed  either  by  the  fall  or  by  the  lion,  ran  to 
the  place  to  get  the  meat.  When  they  got  there,  the 
lion  was  trying  to  get  away  on  three  legs  and  one  of 
the  Indians  shot  it  with  an  arrow.  Then  they  went 
to  the  sheep,  and  when  they  started  to  skin  it  they  saw 
that  it  wasn't  a  sheep,  but  a  man  wearing  the  skin 
and  head  of  a  sheep.     He  had  been  hunting,  and  his 


OLD-TIME    HUNTING    WAYS  89 

bow  and  arrows  were  wrapped  in  the  skin  and  lay 
against  his  breast.  The  fall  had  killed  him.  They 
could  tell  from  the  way  his  hair  was  dressed  and  from 
his  moccasins  that  he  was  a  Bannock." 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  that's  an  interesting  story,  and 
that  brings  the  fashion  these  people  had  right  home  to 
us,  doesn't  it?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  guess  there's  no  doubt  but 
that  they  made  these  disguises  and  used  them.  Why, 
Joe  here  will  tell  you  what  he's  heard  from  his  grand- 
fathers about  the  way  the  men  used  to  dress  up  and 
lead  the  buffalo  into  the  piskuns." 

"  Yes,  I  think  I've  heard  about  that.  They  used  to 
wear  a  kind  of  buffalo  skin  dress,  didn't  they,  Joe?" 

"  Yes,"  said  Joe,  "  sometimes  they  wore  a  kind  of  a 
cap  and  coat  made  of  buffalo  skins,  and  sometimes 
they  just  carried  their  robes.  Of  course,  they  didn't 
show  themselves  close  to  and  in  plain  sight  of  the 
buffalo.  They  just  showed  themselves  enough  to 
make  the  buffalo  wonder  what  they  were,  and  follow 
'em  to  try  to  find  out.  The  Indians  think  that  it 
was  the  power  of  the  buffalo  rock  that  used  to  make 
the  buffalo  come,  but  I  guess  it  was  just  nothing  but 
curiosity.  Everybody  has  seen  antelope  get  scared 
and  run  away,  and  then  if  a  man  dodges  out  of  sight 
very  likely  they'll  turn  around  and  run  back  and  close 
up  to  him,  to  try  to  find  out  what  it  was  they  got 
scared  at." 

"  Sure,  that's  so,"  said  Hugh,  "  and  it  isn't  ante- 
lope or  buffalo  alone.  You'll  see  elk  and  black-tailed 
deer  do  the  same  thing.  They'll  stand  and  look  and 
look,  and  often  you  can  fire  three  or  four  shots  at 
them  before  they'll  start  to  run  away.     In  the  same 


90         JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

way  if  a  bear  sees  something  that  he  don't  understand, 
why,  he  gets  up  on  his  hind  legs  and  looks  as  hard  as 
he  can.  Of  course,  all  these  animals  would  rather 
smell  than  look;  their  noses  tell  them  the  truth  and 
they  don't  have  to  smell  a  second  time  to  find  out 
whether  it's  an  enemy  or  not,  but  often  they  have  to 
look  half  a  dozen  times.  Animals  are  mighty  inquisi- 
tive creatures.  If  they  see  something  they  don't  un- 
derstand they  want  to  find  out  about  it." 

"  Why,  Hugh,"  said  Jack,  "  it  isn't  animals  alone. 
Birds  do  the  same  thing.  I've  never  seen  this  myself, 
but  the  books  tell  about  it  and  I  talked  with  one  man, 
a  friend  of  my  uncle's,  who  had  seen  it  himself.  In 
the  winter  when  the  ducks  are  down  South  and  in  big 
flocks  they  used  to  have  a  way  of  shooting  them  that 
they  called  toling.  The  way  they  did  it  was  this:  If 
a  lot  of  ducks  were  sitting  on  the  water  too  far  off  from 
the  shore  to  be  shot  at,  the  gunners  would  go  down 
and  hide  close  to  the  shore  and  then  they  would  send 
out  a  little  dog  that  was  trained  to  run  up  and  down 
and  play  about  so  as  to  attract  the  attention  of  the 
ducks.  The  ducks  might  be  sitting  far  off  in  a  big 
raft  or  flock,  many  of  them  perhaps  asleep;  but  when 
they  saw  the  little  dog  playing,  some  of  them  would 
lift  their  heads  and  swim  in  toward  the  shore  to  find 
out  what  he  was  doing.  Gradually  more  and  more 
ducks  would  lift  their  heads  and  swim  in,  until, 
finally,  the  whole  flock  would  be  coming.  As  they  got 
nearer,  the  dog,  which  of  course  was  watching  them, 
would  make  himself  smaller  and  smaller,  until  finally 
he  just  crawled  along  the  shore  on  his  belly  and  per- 
haps gradually  worked  away  from  the  beach  and  into 
the  grass,  but  those  fool  ducks  would  keep  swimming 


OLD-TIME    HUNTING    WAYS  91 

in,  trying  to  see  him,  until  at  last  they  would  get 
within  gunshot,  and  the  people  hidden  there  would  give 
them  one  barrel  on  the  water,  and  then  one  as  they 
rose,  and  sometimes  kill  twenty-five  or  thirty  of  them.'' 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  that's  one  on  me.  I  never 
heard  of  that  before,  but  since  we're  branching  off 
onto  ducks,  I'll  tell  you  what  I  have  heard  of  and 
know  of  its  being  done,  too,  though  I  never  did  see 
it  done.  In  spring  and  fall,  in  ponds  where  the  wild 
rice  grows,  over,  say,  in  Minnesota,  there  used  to  be 
terrible  lots  of  ducks  and  geese  stopping  in  spring  and 
fall  to  feed,  on  their  way  north  and  south.  The  In- 
dians, the  Sioux  anyhow,  and  likely  Chippewas  or 
Saulteaux,  when  they  found  a  place  where  these  ducks 
were  right  plenty,  used  to  strip  off  and  make  a  kind 
of  a  little  hat  or  cap  of  grass  that  they'd  put  on  their 
heads,  and  then  they'd  wade  in  the  water  and  move 
along  very  slowly  so  that  this  cap  would  look  either 
like  a  little  floating  trash  or  a  little  group  of  grass 
stems  projecting  above  the  water,  and  then  they'd 
work  up  close  to  the  ducks  and  catch  them  by  the  feet 
and  pull  them  under  and  then  wring  their  necks." 

"  Yes,"  said  Jack,  "  I  guess  that's  all  right,  for  I've 
heard  of  East  Indian  people  doing  the  same  thing, 
only  they  fitted  a  kind  of  a  gourd  over  their  heads 
and  walked  around  with  that,  so  that  it  just  looked  like 
a  gourd  floating  in  the  water.  Don't  the  Blackfeet 
do  anything  like  this,  Joe?  " 

"I  guess  not,"  said  Joe;  "I  never  heard  anything 
like  it.  They  say  in  old  times,  long  before  the  white 
people  came,  the  Piegans  used  to  go  to  the  shallow 
prairie  lakes  where  ducks  and  geese  bred,  at  the  time 
of  the  year  when  they  can't  fly,  and  then  the  dogs  and 


92        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

young  men  would  go  into  the  pond  on  one  side  and 
drive  out  all  the  birds  on  the  other  and  there  the 
women  and  children  would  kill  them  with  sticks.  In 
the  early  spring,  too,  when  the  birds  had  their  nests, 
they  used  to  go  to  these  lakes  and  get  plenty  of  eggs. 
I  bet  you  never  heard  the  way  they  used  to  cook 
them." 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  Jack,  "  I  reckon  I  never  did." 

"  Why,"  said  Joe,  "  they  used  to  dig  a  hole  in  the 
ground,  a  pretty  deep  hole,  and  then  put  some  water 
in  it,  and  right  over  the  water  they'd  build  a  little  plat- 
form of  twigs  and  put  on  that  platform  as  many  eggs 
as  it  would  hold,  and  above  that  they'd  build  another 
platform  and  put  eggs  on  that  and  so  on  to  the  top, 
maybe  have  three  or  four  of  these  little  platforms 
built  of  willows  to  hold  the  eggs  up.  Then  from  the 
top  of  the  ground  they  dug  out  a  little  slanting  hole  to 
the  bottom  of  the  first  hole.  Then  they  covered  the 
big  hole  with  twigs  and  put  grass  on  that  and  dirt  on 
the  grass.  Then  they  built  a  fire  close  to  the  hole 
and  heated  rocks  and  rolled  them  down  the  little  side 
hole,  so  that  they  would  go  into  the  water  at  the  bottom 
of  the  big  hole.  They  would  keep  rolling  these  hot 
rocks  in  until  the  water  got  very  hot  and  made  plenty 
of  steam.  The  steam  couldn't  get  out  of  the  big 
hole  and  it  just  stayed  there  hot  and  cooked  the  eggs. 
Then  when  they  thought  the  eggs  were  cooked  they 
uncovered  the  big  hole  and  took  them  from  the  plat- 
forms and  there  they  were  all  cooked." 

"  That  was  ingenious,  wasn't  it,  Hugh  ?  "  said  Jack. 

"  Yes,  so  it  was,"  said  Hugh,  "  but  then  these  people 
were  mighty  ingenious  in  many  ways.  Just  think  of 
the  way  they  used  to  cook  in  a  buffalo  hide,  or  in  the 


OLD-TIME    HUNTING    WAYS  93 

paunch  of  an  animal.  You  and  I  would  eat  raw  meat 
all  our  lives  before  we  could  get  up  such  a  scheme  as 
that." 

"  Yes,  that's  so,"  replied  Jack.  "  It's  about  the  last 
thing  I  should  think  of.  Practically  all  their  boiling 
had  to  be  done  by  means  of  hot  stones  put  into  the 
water,  for,  of  course,  they  never  had  any  vessels  that 
could  be  set  over  a  fire  until  they  got  pottery.  I  don't 
suppose  anybody  knows  when  they  first  invented  it, 
but  it  may  have  been  a  long  time  ago." 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  don't  be  too  sure  about  their 
not  having  anything  to  put  over  a  fire  to  boil.  I  never 
saw  it  myself,  but  I've  been  told  by  people  that  I  be- 
lieve, that  these  Saulteaux  up  North  used  to  boil  water 
in  their  birch  bark  dishes.  They  say  that  they  could 
hang  a  birch  bark  kettle  over  the  fire  and  boil  water 
in  it,  and  that  the  birch  bark  wouldn't  take  fire  while 
the  water  was  in  the  kettle." 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  I  certainly  would  like  to  see 
that  done.  I  suppose  it's  so,  if  you've  been  told  so  by 
people  that  you  believe,  but  it  seems  to  me  that's  one 
of  the  hardest  stories  that's  been  told  me  since  I've 
been  out  in  this  country." 


CHAPTER  VIII 

A  BIG  BEAR  HIDE 

The  next  morning  while  the  party  were  cooking  and 
eating  breakfast,  a  swarm  of  mosquitoes  settled  upon 
the  camp  in  great  numbers.  Not  only  did  they  trouble 
the  men,  but  the  horses  were  greatly  annoyed  by 
them ;  so  much  as  that  they  stopped  feeding  and  began 
to  wander  off,  seeking  the  thickets  of  quaking  aspen 
and  willow,  through  which  they  walked  in  order  to 
brush  off  the  insects.  Besides  the  mosquitoes,  the  green 
head  flies — bulldogs,  Hugh  called  them — were  very 
troublesome.  Before  breakfast  was  over  Hugh  said, 
"  Look  here,  boys,  we  can't  stay  here.  The  flies  are 
too  bad.  We  must  pack  up  and  go  on  and  get  some- 
where higher  up,  or  else  to  a  place  where  the  wind  is 
blowing.  Unless  we  do  that  we  are  likely  to  lose  our 
horses.     They'll  run  away  on  us." 

"  Yes,"  said  Jack,  "  we've  either  got  to  get  high  up 
on  the  hills  or  else  go  out  on  the  prairie.  Here  the 
flies  are  too  bad." 

"Well,"  said  Hugh,  "you  two  boys  build  two  or 
three  small  fires  and  throw  some  grass  or  wet  bark  on 
them  so  as  to  make  plenty  of  smoke,  and  then  go  out 
and  round  up  the  horses  and  bring  them  in,  so  that 
they  can  stand  in  the  smoke.  Then  we'll  cache  the 
wagon  here  in  the  brush  somewhere,  and  pack  up  and 
go  on  up  the  river  and  see  if  we  can't  find  some  place 
where  the  flies  are  not  so  thick." 

94 


A    BIG    BEAR    HIDE  95 

It  took  the  boys  but  a  short  time  to  build  a  line  of 
small  fires  at  right  angles  to  the  lake,  down  which 
a  gentle  breeze  was  blowing,  and  then,  pulling  some 
green  grass  and  stripping  the  wet  bark  off  an  old 
rotting  cottonwood  log,  they  soon  had  a  line  of  smokes 
too  strong  for  any  insect.  Then,  going  a  little  way 
down  the  lake,  they  found  the  horses  and  drove  them 
back  to  leeward  of  the  fire,  where  they  stopped  in  ap- 
parently great  contentment,  with  only  their  heads  visi- 
ble above  the  smoke. 

Meanwhile  Hugh  had  been  unloading  the  wagon, 
getting  out  the  pack  saddles  with  their  riggings  and 
making  up  the  packs.  A  portion  of  the  provisions  he 
left  in  the  wagon,  but  the  flour  and  the  bacon  he  tied 
with  extra  ropes  and,  when  the  boys  had  finished  with 
the  horses,  he  had  one  of  them  climb  into  a  tree  and 
hang  the  food  where  it  could  not  be  reached  by  mice 
or  ground  squirrels.  The  sheep  meat  was  lowered 
and  found  to  be  perfectly  good  and  so  dried  on  the  out- 
side that  the  flies  would  not  trouble  it.  It  was  put  in 
an  old  flour  sack  to  go  on  one  of  the  packs. 

Long  before  noon  matters  were  so  far  advanced 
that  the  horses  were  saddled  and,  after  three  of  the  ani- 
mals had  been  packed  and  led  back  again  into  the 
smoke,  the  three  riding  horses  were  saddled,  and  pres- 
ently the  little  train  set  off  up  the  lake  over  the  trail 
followed  by  Jack  and  Joe  the  day  before.  While  they 
were  crossing  the  inlet,  and  for  the  first  mile  or  two  up 
the  trail  on  the  other  side  of  the  upper  lake,  the  flies 
were  very  bad,  but  presently,  when  they  emerged  from 
the  growth  of  young  quaking  aspens  they  met  a  strong 
breeze  blowing  down  the  lake,  which  made  things 
better. 


96        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

Hugh  had  sent  Jack  ahead,  telling  him  to  follow  the 
trail  that  led  up  the  lake  to  an  old  Indian  camping 
ground  six  or  seven  miles  above  the  outlet.  The  trail 
was  plain  and  it  was  impossible  to  lose  it,  and  Jack 
plodded  along  fighting  mosquitoes  and  watching  the 
splendid  mountains  which  rose  on  either  side  of  the 
lake.  As  he  passed  over  a  little  ridge  between  two  of 
the  many  streams  that  ran  down  from  the  mountains, 
he  suddenly  saw  ahead  of  him  and  a  little  to  his  right, 
a  huge  brown  bear,  apparently  looking  not  at  him, 
but  at  something  behind  him  on  the  trail.  The  bear 
stood  on  the  hillside  at  a  little  distance  above  the  trail, 
and  a  rise  of  the  ground  had  hidden  Jack  from  view. 
It  was  a  splendid-looking  animal,  its  coat  bright  and 
glossy,  and  Jack  could  see  the  long  fur  ripple  as  the 
breeze  struck  it. 

All  this  Jack's  eye  took  in  at  a  glance,  and  instantly 
he  had  slipped  out  of  his  saddle  and  stepped  around  his 
horse's  head,  holding  the  reins  over  his  left  arm.  He 
pitched  his  gun  to  his  shoulder,  aimed  at  the  bear  just 
behind  the  foreleg  and  low  down  and  fired.  Then, 
turning,  he  sprang  into  his  seat  almost  without  touch- 
ing the  saddle. 

At  the  shot  the  horse  had  stepped  quickly  to  one  side, 
but  had  not  pulled  back,  so  that  Jack  had  no  trouble 
in  remounting,  while  the  bear  had  given  a  loud  bawl, 
and  had  fallen  to  the  ground,  turning  its  head  to  bite 
the  wound,  and  then  had  rolled  over  two  or  three 
times  down  the  steep  hillside. 

Jack  whirled  his  horse  and  spurred  up  the  hill,  wish- 
ing to  be  above  the  bear  rather  than  below  it.  At  the 
same  time  he  waved  his  arm  to  Hugh,  who  was  now 
in  sight,  motioning  to  him  to  go  up  the  hill.     By  this 


A    BIG    BEAR    HIDE  97 

time  the  bear  had  gained  his  feet  and  was  coming  back 
along  the  trail  as  hard  as  he  could.  His  head  hung 
low,  his  ears  were  laid  back  and  his  long  tongue  lolled 
from  his  mouth.  The  noise  of  the  shot  had  put  every- 
one on  the  alert,  and  it  made  Jack  laugh  a  little  to  look 
back  and  see  his  two  companions  and  all  the  pack 
horses  scramble  up  the  hill  as  hard  as  they  could.  The 
bear  covered  forty  or  fifty  yards,  running  fast  and 
strong,  and  then,  seeming  to  notice  the  people  on  the 
hill  above  it,  turned  and  rushed  toward  Jack,  but  before 
it  had  got  anywhere  near  him,  it  began  to  go  more 
and  more  slowly  and  to  stagger  a  little  and  presently 
fell,  rolled  over  backwards  two  or  three  times  and  then 
lay  still.  The  three  men  with  their  pack  horses  came 
together  on  the  hill,  well  above  the  bear,  and  Hugh 
said,  "Well,  son,  what's  the  matter  with  you?  Do 
you  want  to  stampede  this  outfit?  Looks  to  me  like 
you've  got  quite  a  bear  there." 

"  Why,  yes,  Hugh,  he's  about  the  prettiest  bear  I 
ever  saw.  He  looked  so  handsome  standing  there  on 
the  hillside  that  I  couldn't  help  taking  a  shot  at  him. 
I  think  he  has  a  good  hide,  too,  but  maybe  I  oughtn't 
to  have  fired,  for  it  will  take  us  some  time  to  skin  him 
and  while  we're  doing  that  the  flies  will  be  getting  in 
their  work." 

"  That's  so,"  said  Hugh,  "  but  now  that  he's  dead, 
we've  got  to  take  his  coat  off.  I'll  tell  you  what  we'd 
better  do.  You  and  Joe  go  on  to  that  little  point  that 
you  see  sticking  out  there,  just  this  side  of  where  that 
big  creek  comes  down,  and  make  camp  there.  Get  as 
far  out  toward  the  water  as  you  can.  I  think  maybe 
the  breeze  will  keep  the  flies  down,  and  we  can  stop 
there  with  comfort.     I'll  stay  here  and  start  in  to  skin 


98        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

the  bear,  and  after  you've  made  camp  you  come  back 
with  a  pack  horse  and  we'll  take  the  hide  into  camp." 

"  Hold  on,  Hugh,"  said  Jack.  "  That's  a  kind  of 
a  low-down  trick  for  me  to  kill  this  bear,  and  then 
leave  you  here  to  skin  it  and  fight  flies.  Let  me  stop 
here  with  you  now  and  take  the  skin  off  and  let  Joe 
go  on  and  make  camp.  If  the  flies  are  not  bad  he  can 
do  it  alone  just  about  as  well  as  we  could  together, 
and  if  they  are,  he'll  have  to  make  a  smoke  for  the 
stock  and  unpack,  and  when  you  and  I  get  back  with 
this  hide,  it  won't  take  long  to  put  up  the  tent." 

"Well,"  said  Hugh,  " maybe  that  is  better.  It'll 
shorten  up  the  work  to  skin  now." 

Hugh  explained  again  to  Joe  where  it  was  that  he 
wanted  to  camp,  and  Joe  went  on  with  the  pack  horses. 
Hugh  and  Jack  sat  down  by  the  bear  and  began  to 
skin  it. 

"  Now,  I  want  you  to  take  notice,  son,"  said  Hugh. 
"  Here  it  is  July  and  this  bear  hasn't  begun  to  shed 
out  a  bit  yet  nor  even  to  get  sunburned,  and  yet  maybe 
he's  been  out  of  his  den  now  for  two  months  or  more. 
He  isn't  fat;  he's  lost  considerable  flesh  since  he's 
come  out,  but  his  coat  is  just  as  good  as  it  was  the 
day  he  left  his  den." 

"  I've  always  heard,  Hugh,"  said  Jack,  "  that  bears, 
when  they  come  out  of  their  dens,  are  just  as  fat  as 
when  they  go  into  them." 

"  That's  what  everybody  says,"  said  Hugh,  "  and  I 
reckon  it's  true.  I  never  happened  to  kill  a  bear  right 
fresh  from  its  den,  but  I've  killed  them  in  May  and 
found  them  very  fat.  I've  a  kind  of  an  idea  that  they 
lose  their  fat  slowly.  Most  people  say  that  when  they 
come  out  and  start  wandering  about  looking  for  food 


A    BIG    BEAR    HIDE  99 

they  keep  going  all  the  time  and  get  poor  right  away. 
I  don't  quite  believe  that  is  so.  I'm  pretty  sure  they 
don't  get  much  to  eat  at  first,  and  I've  a  notion  that 
if  they  lost  their  fat  right  away  some  of  them  would 
starve  to  death  before  food  got  plenty.  When  we  get 
this  fellow's  skin  off,  I'm  going  to  look  into  his  stom- 
ach and  see  what  he's  had  to  eat  in  the  last  twenty-four 
hours." 

"  That'll  be  good,"  said  Jack.  "  I'd  like  to  see, 
too." 

For  some  time  the  skinning  went  on  in  silence  and 
the  hide  began  to  drop  from  both  sides  of  the  great 
carcass. 

"  I  tell  you,  Hugh,"  said  Jack,  "  this  skin  beats  any 
one  of  those  that  we  got  last  summer  down  in  North 
Park.  I  think  it's  fully  as  big  as  the  biggest  one  that 
we  got  then,  and  it  seems  to  me  that  the  hair  is  twice 
as  long  and  twice  as  silky." 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  it's  an  awful  good  hide.  I 
don't  know  when  I've  seen  one  that  was  much  better. 
You  must  remember  that  those  we  killed  last  summer 
were  not  in  good  order;  the  winter  coat  had  only  just 
begun  to  grow.  This  hide  will  make  a  fine  robe  if 
we  can  get  anybody  to  tan  it." 

"  How  do  you  mean,  Hugh  ?  "  said  Jack.  "  Won't 
any  woman  tan  this  hide  if  we  pay  her  for  it  ?  " 

"  Why,  no,  son,  you  know  a  great  deal  better  than 
that.  Haven't  I  told  you  a  good  many  times  that 
lots  of  Blackfeet  women  won't  touch  a  bear  hide  on 
any  terms?  You  know  the  Blackfeet,  anyhow,  are 
afraid  of  bears  and  think  they're  powerful  medicine. 
A  good  many  of  them  won't  call  a  bear  by  his  name. 
They  call  him  Sticky  Mouth.     Most  of  them  won't 


ioo        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

sit  on  a  bear  robe.  There  are  some  medicine  men  or 
priests  that  can  wear  a  kind  of  cap  made  of  a  strip 
of  bearskin  on  the  head,  but  it's  hard  to  find  a  woman 
that  has  the  power  to  tan  a  bear  hide.  They  are  afraid 
of  the  spirit  of  the  bear;  afraid  that  it  will  bring 
them  bad  luck.', 

"  Now,  Hugh,"  said  Jack,  "  I  don't  remember  that 
you  ever  told  me  about  that  before.  I  know  that  the 
Indians  think  that  a  bear  is  mighty  smart  and  has 
great  power,  and  I  know  that  the  Eastern  Indians 
when  they  killed  a  bear  used  to  smoke  to  the  head  and 
make  the  head  presents  of  tobacco,  but  I  didn't  know 
that  they  wouldn't  touch  a  bear  hide." 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  you  know  it  now.  There's 
only  now  and  then  one  of  these  Piegan  women  that 
would  dare  to  dress  a  bear  hide.  We  may  find  such 
a  woman  in  camp  when  we  go  back,  but  the  chances 
are  against  it.  However,  I  reckon  we'll  manage  some- 
how to  get  the  hide  tanned." 

While  they  were  talking  thus,  both  workers  were 
plying  the  knife  vigorously  and  in  a  little  while  the 
hide  was  free  all  around  and  the  carcass  was  slipped 
off  it.  Then  Hugh,  cutting  into  the  bear's  stomach, 
turned  out  its  contents  on  the  ground.  It  was  almost 
empty,  containing  nothing  but  two  or  three  wads  of 
grass  and  a  single  ground  squirrel,  which  had  been 
swallowed  whole. 

"  You  see,"  said  Hugh,  "  this  fellow  hasn't  had 
much  to  eat,  and  you  see,  too,  that  he's  got  quite  a  little 
fat  left  on  his  carcass.  I  reckon  maybe  he's  been  down 
along  the  shore  of  the  lake  to  see  if  he  couldn't  pick  up 
a  fish  or  two  that  had  drifted  ashore,  and  not  having 
found  anything  there,  he  was  going  back  up  onto  the 


A    BIG    BEAR    HIDE  *oi 

mountain  to  try  to  dig  out  a  gopher,  or  a  woodchuck, 
or  one  of  those  little  rock  rabbits." 

They  now  folded  the  bear  hide,  and  while  Jack  held 
his  horse,  Hugh  tried  to  tie  on  the  hide  behind  the 
saddle,  but  the  horse  would  have  none  of  it.  He 
struggled  and  pulled  back,  and  it  was  only  by  blinding 
him  with  a  coat — an  operation  which  took  some  time 
and  involved  some  trouble  because  both  men  were  cov- 
ered with  bear's  grease,  the  scent  of  which  frightened 
the  horse — that  they  could  get  him  blindfolded  and 
the  hide  firmly  lashed  in  position. 

"  Now,  Hugh,"  said  Jack.  "  I'm  not  proposing  to 
get  onto  that  horse  on  this  side  hill.  The  chances 
are  that  he'd  buck  and  very  likely  drop  me  off  on  a 
rock.  I'll  walk  and  lead  him  until  he's  a  little  more 
used  to  his  load." 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  that's  pretty  sensible.  You 
go  ahead  and  lead  him  and  I'll  follow,  and  if  he  pulls 
away  from  you,  why  I'll  drive  him  along  the  trail." 

Jack  took  the  blind  from  the  horse's  head  and  tak- 
ing up  his  gun  went  down  toward  the  trail.  The  horse, 
however,  was  afraid  of  his  load  and  bucked  pretty  sav- 
agely. They  had,  however,  taken  the  precaution  to 
cinch  the  saddle  tightly,  and  the  lashing  held,  so  that, 
at  length,  the  badly  frightened  horse  followed  more  or 
less  uneasily  along  the  trail,  Hugh  riding  behind  him 
and  having  some  trouble  in  controlling  his  own  animal, 
into  whose  nostrils  the  scent  of  the  bear  hide  was  con- 
stantly blown.  Their  progress  toward  camp  was  slow, 
but  an  hour  after  they  started  they  reached  it  and 
found  the  horses  feeding  near  it  not  greatly  troubled 
by  the  flies,  for  a  strong  wind  was  now  blowing  down 
the  lake. 


ig'J         JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

During  the  afternoon,  while  Hugh  was  getting  the 
camp  in  shape  and  cooking  supper,  the  two  boys 
stretched  the  bear  hide  and  went  over  it  with  a  knife, 
scraping  from  it  all  possible  grease.  After  supper  and 
just  before  sundown,  Jack,  casting  at  the  mouth  of  the 
turbulent  mountain  stream  which  here  poured  itself 
into  the  lake,  caught  a  dozen  splendid  trout,  some  of 
which  gave  him  fine  sport. 

After  nightfall,  the  breeze  which  swept  down  from 
the  mountains  was  so  cool  that  the  mosquitoes  ceased 
to  be  troublesome,  and  they  sat  about  the  camp  fire 
enjoying  its  grateful  warmth.  Presently  Joe  broke 
out  and  said,  "  Where  are  we  going,  White  Bull?  I 
never  came  into  the  mountains  so  far  as  this,  and  I 
don't  know  this  country." 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  ain't  much  surprised  at 
that,  for  the  Piegans  don't  go  much  into  the  mountains. 
They  are  afraid  of  the  bears  and  of  the  bad  ghosts  that 
live  there." 

"  Yes,"  said  Joe,  "  that  is  true.  The  Piegans  like 
the  open  prairie,  where  there  is  always  plenty  of  light 
and  where  you  can  see  a  long  way.  The  only  people 
here  that  go  much  into  the  mountains  are  the  Koote- 
nays  and  the  Stonies.  Sometimes  the  Bloods  go  in 
a  little  way  to  hunt  or  trap  beaver,  but  not  far.  Plenty 
of  men  in  my  tribe  would  stop  right  here ;  they  would 
not  go  any  further.  Up  above  here,  on  this  lake,  I 
see  that  the  mountains  come  close  together,  and  there 
is  only  just  room  enough  for  the  water  to  get  through. 
We  don't  know  what  there  is  beyond  there  and  we  do 
not  want  to  go  to  meet  the  dangers  that  may  be 
there." 

"  Why,"  said  Jack,  "  you  don't  feel  that  way,  do 


A    BIG    BEAR    HIDE  103 

you,  Joe?  You've  been  pretty  nearly  raised  among 
white  people.  You  are  not  afraid  of  the  mountains, 
are  you  ?  " 

"  No,"  replied  Joe,  "  I'm  not  much  afraid  of  them. 
I'm  a  little  afraid,  but  I  don't  know  what  there  is  up 
behind  these  rocks  that  we  see  ahead  of  us.  Only 
to-day  we  saw  this  awful  big  bear  that  you  killed. 
Maybe  up  in  the  mountains  there  are  more  bears  and 
bigger  ones  and  worse.  I  would  like  to  see  what  there 
is  up  there,  but  then  I  know  that  it  may  be  very  dan- 
gerous to  go  there." 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  with  a  smile,  "  we  haven't 
talked  much  about  it,  but  I  thought  we'd  just  go  up 
here  along  the  lake  and  get  to  the  head  of  it  and  then 
follow  up  the  river  that  comes  into  it  and  keep  on 
climbing  until  we  got  to  the  head  of  that  river.  Some- 
where, not  very  far  away,  it  must  begin,  and  must 
come  falling  down  from  these  high  peaks,  because  not 
very  far  beyond  here  there  are  other  rivers  running 
the  other  way,  so  that  we  are  here  somewhere  near 
the  backbone  of  this  country. 

"  Well,"  said  Joe,  "  I'd  like  to  see  it.  In  old  times 
you  know  the  Piegans  were  not  afraid  of  the  moun- 
tains as  they  are  now.  In  old  times  they  used  to  cross 
over  these  mountains  and  go  beyond,  into  the  country 
of  the  Snakes  and  the  Kootenays  and  the  River 
people,*  and  used  to  take  horses  from  them  and  drive 
them  back  through  the  mountains ;  also,  they  used  to 
go  through  the  mountains  and  make  long  journeys  to 
war  to  the  southwest,  and  if  they  found  little  parties 
of  white  men  who  were  trapping  or  trading,   they 

*The  Kalespelms,  more  commonly  called  Flathead  Indians,  who 
dwell  on  and  near  Lake  Pend  d'Oreille. 


104        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

would  try  and  take  their  horses  and  a  scalp  or  two,  if 
they  could.  I  have  heard  old  people  tell  about  how 
their  fathers  used  to  go  on  these  war  journeys  and 
used  to  fight  everyone  that  they  met,  white  people  or 
Indians." 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  that's  so.  In  the  early  days 
before  my  time  the  Blackfeet  were  thought  to  be  a 
terrible  people." 

"  Yes,  indeed,"  said  Jack,  "  I've  read  some  of  the 
old  books  about  the  early  trappers  and  they  are  always 
talking  about  the  danger  from  the  Blackfeet,  and  how 
they  would  lie  in  wait  for  the  trappers,  as  they  went 
along  the  streams  gathering  their  fur  in  the  morning, 
and  kill  them,  or  how  they  would  try  to  run  off  their 
horses.  Sometimes  they  would  have  big  battles  with 
them.  The  trappers,  I  think,  were  mostly  at  peace 
with  the  Snakes  and  perhaps  with  other  tribes,  and 
often  camped  with  them,  and  when  the  Blackfeet  were 
troublesome,  if  the  trappers  had  Indian  allies,  they 
often  used  to  follow  up  the  Blackfeet,  and  punish  them 
pretty  severely  for  the  raids  they  had  made  on  them." 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  as  I  was  saying,  we  haven't 
talked  much  about  this  and  none  of  us  here  know  much 
about  the  country  ahead  of  us.  I  came  up  once,  trap- 
ping, as  far  as  the  head  of  the  lake.  I  got  a  few 
beaver,  and  once  I  killed  an  elk  just  above  the  head  of 
the  lake,  but  beyond  there  I  have  not  been.  Still,  I 
guess  we'll  be  able  to  find  our  way.  The  valley  is 
narrow  and  the  mountains  high  on  either  side,  and  we 
cannot  very  well  get  out  of  that  trough,  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  it  may  be  pretty  bad  going  there.  The 
whole  valley  may  be  a  swamp  or  a  succession  of  little 


A    BIG    BEAR    HIDE  105 

lakes  and  it's  possible  that  we  can't  find  a  way  to  the 
head  of  it  at  all.  The  only  way  to  learn  about  it  is 
to  try.  Anyhow,  it's  new  country.  I  never  heard 
of  anybody  going  up  on  the  river  above  the  lake,  ex- 
cept one  man,  old  man  Ellis.  He  told  me  once  about 
going  up  there  and  said  that  he  got  across  to  the  other 
side  of  the  range,  but  he  said  it  was  pretty  hard  trav- 
eling for  the  animals,  and  that  in  one  place  they  had  to 
lower  their  horses  by  ropes  over  some  bad  places." 

"  Do  you  mean  to  say,  Hugh,  that  no  white  men 
have  been  up  here,  except  that  one?  " 

"  He's  the  only  one  I  ever  heard  about,"  replied 
Hugh.  "  And  I  never  felt  quite  sure  that  he  got  as 
far  as  he  thought  he  did.  At  all  events  it  won't  be  a 
bad  trip  to  make,  unless  the  flies  are  too  awful  bother- 
some, and  by  the  way,  son,  to-morrow  morning  before 
we  start,  we'd  better  get  out  that  strip  of  mosquito 
bar  that  you  put  in.  If  the  mosquitoes  are  bad  we'll 
need  it  before  very  long." 

"  I'll  do  that,  Hugh,"  said  Jack.  "  But  what  do 
you  suppose  we'll  find  up  there  at  the  head  of  the 
river?" 

"  It's  pretty  hard  to  say,"  Hugh  answered.  "  I  ex- 
pect we'll  find  lots  of  rocks  and  stone  and  ice,  probably 
lots  of  game,  and  we'll  surely  see  some  mighty  pretty 
scenery;  high  peaks  and  big  snow  fields.  There  sure 
ought  to  be  lots  of  sheep  and  goats  up  there,  some  elk, 
maybe  a  moose  or  two,  and  of  course  some  bears,  but 
that  doesn't  mean  that  we're  going  to  get  all  this  game. 
It  only  means  maybe  that  we'll  see  some  of  it ;  perhaps 
only  some  signs  of  it.  Just  how  far  wre  can  take  the 
horses,  of  course,  I  don't  know.     We'll  have  to  try  and 


106        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

do  the  best  we  can.  Likely  enough,  we'll  know  a  lot 
more  about  it  three  or  four  days  from  now." 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  I'll  be  mighty  glad  to  get  up 
there  and  see  what  there  is." 

"  Yes,"  agreed  Joe,  "  that  will  be  good.  I  shall 
have  plenty  of  things  to  tell  the  people  when  I  get  back 
to  the  camp  after  this  trip." 


CHAPTER  IX 

A    BLACKFOOT    LEGEND 

For  a  time  all  sat  silent,  and  then  Joe  asked,  "  White 
Bull,  did  you  ever  hear  that  the  people  once  lived  on 
the  other  side  of  the  mountains;  that  there  is  where 
they  came  from?  " 

"  No/'  said  Hugh,  "  I  don't  know  as  I  have.  I 
seem  to  remember  something  about  such  a  story,  but 
I  can't  remember  what  it  is." 

"  Tell  it  to  us,  Joe,"  said  Jack. 

"  Well,"  said  Joe,  "  it's  a  story  I  heard  my  uncle 
tell  a  good  many  years  ago,  when  I  was  a  little  fellow, 
but  I  don't  believe  it's  true.  He  didn't  know  whether 
it  was  true  or  not.  It  was  just  something  that  he  had 
heard  from  some  older  person.  You  know  the  Pie- 
gans  believe  that  they  used  to  live  far  up  northeast,  in 
the  timber  by  some  big  lake,  and  that  they  came  this 
way  looking  for  some  place  where  life  was  easier,  where 
there  was  more  game  and  it  was  easier  to  get  close 
to  the  animals.  I  guess  that  is  true,  because  there  are 
old  people  still  living  whose  fathers  and  grandfathers 
can  remember  old  Piegans,  who  said  that  they  had 
made  that  journey.  This  other  story  is  about  some  of 
the  people  having  lived  across  the  mountains.  It's 
a  long  story,  but  I'll  tell  it  to  you  if  you  want  me  to." 

"  Go  ahead,"  said  Hugh. 

"  Well,"  Joe  went  on,  "  the  story  tells  that  a  long 
time  ago  the  people  lived  west  of  the  mountains  and  in 
a  hot  country  away  to  the  south.    A  season  came  when 

107 


108         JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

all  animals  were  scarce  and  hard  to  find  and  the  people 
got  hungry.  In  the  camp  was  an  old  man  and  his 
family,  three  sons,  young  men  grown  up.  Now,  at 
last,  when  there  was  no  food  to  be  had,  this  old  man 
said,  *  Why  should  I  stay  here  where  there  is  no  food  ? 
I  shall  go  away  with  my  children  and  we  will  try  to 
find  a  place  where  there  are  animals  and  where  food 
can  be  had.  I  will  travel  toward  the  rising  sun,  even 
to  the  mountains,  to  the  country  where  no  one  has  ever 
been,  to  a  land  no  one  has  looked  on/ 

"  They  started ;  the  old  man  and  his  wife,  and  the 
three  sons  and  their  wives  and  children.  They  did  not 
know  the  mountains,  and  supposed  that  as  soon  as 
they  had  gone  over  the  nearest  one  they  would  pass 
down  on  the  other  side  to  the  plain,  but  they  found  that 
this  was  not  so.  Beyond  the  first  mountain  rose  an- 
other, and  beyond  this  another.  They  traveled  on, 
day  after  day,  and  climbed  ridges  and  went  down  into 
valleys  and  always  in  front  of  them  they  saw  other 
ridges  or  other  valleys,  always  steeper,  higher  and 
harder  to  cross.  The  road  was  rough,  thick  timber 
kept  them  back,  sharp  stones  cut  their  feet,  wide  rivers 
stopped  them.  They  found  no  game,  except  now  and 
then  some  birds,  and  soon  they  grew  tired,  hungry, 
footsore  and  discouraged.  At  last  they  had  almost 
made  up  their  minds  to  stop  looking  for  what  they 
could  not  find,  and  to  turn  about  and  try  to  return  to 
their  own  country  and  their  own  people ;  but  one  night, 
as  they  talked  about  this,  the  old  man  said  to  them, 
'  Come,  let  us  take  courage,  let  us  keep  on  a  little 
longer  and  try  to  find  that  country.  The  road  has 
been  long  and  hard,  and  we  are  almost  tired  out,  but 
let  us  go  on  a  little  further.     It  may  be  that  we  have 


A    BLACKFOOT    LEGEND  109 

almost  arrived.  To-day  you  saw  that  high  mountain 
beyond,  toward  which  we  are  traveling;  let  us  climb 
over  that  and  if  beyond  that  we  see  nothing  except 
more  mountains,  then  we  will  turn  about  and  go  back 
to  the  place  we  came  from.'  The  sons  said  it  was 
good,  and  the  next  day  they  traveled  on. 

"  At  length  they  reached  the  top  of  the  high  peak, 
and  when  they  looked  down  on  the  land  below  they 
saw  before  them  a  wide  prairie.  It  looked  beautiful 
to  these  people,  who  were  tired  of  the  lonely,  rough, 
dark  mountains.  On  the  plain  they  could  see  herds  of 
big  brown  animals,  larger  than  any  that  they  had  ever 
seen  before,  animals  with  curly  hair  and  short  black 
horns.  There,  too,  were  yellow  antelope,  and  in  the 
valleys,  deer,  and  on  the  ridges  of  the  mountain  were 
many  elk.  Fresh  streams  ran  to  the  prairie,  and  the 
sight  was  one  that  made  their  hearts  glad. 

"  '  Ah/  said  the  old  man,  '  now  it  is  good.' 

"  They  all  stopped,  and  he  sat  down  and  smoked  to 
the  sun  and  said.  '  Listen,  O  Sun,  now  you  have  taken 
pity  on  us.  We  believed  that  we  were  going  to  die 
among  these  rocks,  but  you  have  taken  care  of  us  and 
have  brought  us  safely  out  of  them.  Now  we  can  see 
the  things  that  we  may  live  by.'  So  he  prayed  for 
help,  and  for  plenty  to  eat  and  for  long  life,  and  when 
he  had  finished  his  prayer  and  his  smoking,  they  made 
a  present  to  the  sun.  Then  they  went  slowly  down  the 
mountainside  and  toward  night  camped  on  a  stream. 

"  The  next  day  they  hunted,  but  they  could  kill  no 
game.  They  had  no  arrows,  for  they  had  used  them 
all  up  in  crossing  the  mountains,  and  the  buffalo  would 
not  let  them  get  too  close  to  them,  so  they  were  still 
without  food  and  hungry. 


no        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

"  Then  the  old  man  saw  that  something  must  be 
done,  and  he  made  strong  medicine,  a  black  medicine, 
which  he  rubbed  on  the  feet  of  his  oldest  son,  and 
after  this  had  been  put  on  his  feet,  the  young  man 
became  so  swift  that  he  could  at  once  run  up  along- 
side the  fastest  cows  and  kill  them  with  his  knife. 
This  made  the  young  man  feel  good,  and  he  said  to  his 
brothers,  '  Now  and  from  this  time  forth  I  and  my 
children  are  Siks'  1  ka.*     This  shall  be  our  name.' 

"  When  the  other  two  sons  saw  that  their  elder 
brother  could  do  so  much  through  the  medicine  their 
father  had  made  and  that  they  could  do  nothing,  they 
felt  badly.  They  went  to  the  old  man  and  said,  '  Why 
do  you  treat  our  brother  so  much  better  than  you  treat 
us?  You  have  made  him  a  swift  runner,  so  that  he 
can  overtake  the  game,  while  we  can  kill  nothing,  and 
our  wives  and  children  have  to  eat  what  he  gives  us. 
What  have  we  done  that  you  have  forgotten  us? 
Come,  now,  make  us  also  swift  runners,  so  that  we,  too, 
can  have  enough  to  eat  and  can  have  names.' 

"  The  old  man  answered  them  and  said,  '  Why  do 
you  do  nothing  except  sit  about  the  fire  and  eat  food 
which  your  brother  has  killed?  If  you  wish  names 
go  to  war,  and  when  you  come  back,  if  you  have  done 
well  and  killed  enemies  and  counted  coups,  you,  too, 
shall  have  names.' 

"  So  the  young  men  went  back  to  the  lodge,  and  each 
asked  his  wife  to  make  him  some  moccasins  and  a  war 
sack,  and  they  made  themselves  some  war  arrows  and 
started. 

"  They  were  gone  a  long  time.     Siks'  1  ka  killed 
many  buffalo,   and   the   women   dried   the  meat  and 
*  Black  his  foot. 


A    BLACKFOOT    LEGEND  in 

tanned  the  hides.  The  berries  grew  ripe,  and  the 
women  cut  down  the  sarvice  bushes  and  beat  off  the 
fruit  over  a  robe  spread  on  the  ground  and  dried  the 
berries.  Then  the  tops  of  the  mountains  became  white 
with  snow,  the  leaves  fell.  From  the  north  came  the 
wild  fowl,  the  swans,  geese  and  ducks,  and  their  num- 
bers covered  the  surface  of  the  prairie  lakes,  while  their 
cries  were  heard  night  and  day  through  the  air.  Then 
the  wild  fowl  passed  on,  the  snow  fell  and  melted  and 
fell  again,  and  it  was  winter.  After  a  long  time  black 
winds  began  to  blow  from  the  west  and  the  snow  dis- 
appeared. Then  again  the  wild  fowl  were  seen.  Then 
the  Thunder  shouted,  bringing  the  rain,  so  that  the 
berries  might  grow  large  and  sweet.  Then  the  grass 
began  to  spring,  the  prairie  to  turn  green,  and  soon 
it  was  summer. 

"  One  night,  a  year  after  the  young  men  had  gone 
away,  as  they  sat  about  the  fire  in  the  lodge,  they  heard 
the  dogs  bark  and  presently  the  door  was  lifted  and 
the  second  son  stepped  in  and  sat  down.  His  robe 
was  thin  and  all  his  clothing  worn  by  long  travel,  but 
his  body  was  lean  and  hard.  The  women  hurried  and 
set  food  before  him,  and  while  he  ate  they  sang  songs 
about  him,  telling  how  brave  he  was  and  how  he  had 
traveled  far  to  strike  his  enemies.  After  he  had  eaten 
the  old  man  filled  the  pipe  and  smoked  and  passed  it  to 
his  son,  who  spoke,  and  told  of  his  journeyings  to  far- 
off  lands  and  among  strange  people,  and  how  he  had 
struck  his  enemies  and  all  that  he  had  done. 

"  After  he  had  finished  the  old  man  said  to  him, 
'  My  son,  you  have  done  well  and  since  you  have  killed 
many  chiefs,  let  that  be  your  name,  Ah'  kai  nan' (many 
chiefs).     So  after  that  the  second  son  and  his  children 


ii2        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

and  their  children  were  called  Ah'  kai  nah,  but  now 
they  call  them  Kai'nah. 

"  Another  season  passed,  the  berries  ripened,  the 
leaves  fell,  the  water  fowl  came  and  went;  it  was 
winter.  Then  again  the  Thunder  spoke,  and  again  the 
grass  grew.  The  wife  of  the  third  son  thought  much 
about  her  husband,  fearing  that  she  would  not  see  him 
again.  She  used  to  talk  of  him  to  her  children,  tell- 
ing them  that  they  ought  to  be  brave  like  their  father. 

"  One  night  in  summer,  when  all  in  the  lodge  were 
asleep,  the  dogs  barked  loudly,  the  lodge  door  was 
lifted  and  a  person  entered  and  sat  down  by  the  fire. 
'  Who  is  there  ? '  said  the  old  man.  There  was  no 
answer.  Then  the  wife  of  the  third  son  rose  from  her 
bed  and  spread  grass  on  the  fire,  and  soon  it  blazed  up 
and  she  saw  sitting  there  her  husband.  Glad  then  was 
her  heart,  and  quickly  she  built  the  fire  and  gave  him 
food,  and  as  he  ate,  she  looked  at  him  and  saw  that 
his  clothing  was  torn  and  ragged,  his  face  thin  and  his 
arms  and  breast  scarred,  but  from  his  quiver  hung 
scalps,  and  on  the  ground  beside  him  was  a  bundle. 
Then  she  began  to  sing  about  him  and  the  others  in 
the  lodge  arose  and  sat  by  the  fire  while  he  ate.  After 
he  had  eaten  and  smoked,  he  said  to  the  old  man,  *  I 
have  traveled  far  and  I  have  seen  many  people.  Look 
at  these  scalps/  and  he  showed  them  the  scalps 
and  the  bundle  of  strange  clothing  that  he 
had  taken  from  enemies  far  to  the  south.  He  told 
them  all  that  he  had  seen  and  done,  and  after  he  had 
finished  speaking  his  father  said  to  him,  '  Because  you 
have  taken  this  strange  clothing  you  shall  be  called 
Pi  kun'  ni '  (garments),  so  since  that  time  he  and  his 
children's  children  have  been  called  Pi  kun'  ni." 


A    BLACKFOOT    LEGEND  113 

"  That's  a  bully  story,  Joe,"  exclaimed  Jack,  after 
the  tale  was  ended,  and  Hugh  joined  in  and  said,  "  So 
it  is,  a  mighty  good  story,  but  I  reckon  it's  just  a  story 
and  nothing  else.  I've  always  heard,  like  Joe  said  a 
little  while  ago,  that  the  people  came  from  up  north 
and  I've  always  believed  that  they  were  relations  of 
the  Crees.  I've  often  wondered,  though,  about  how 
the  tribes  got  their  names.  There  are  lots  of  stories, 
but  none  of  them  seem  to  ring  true.  Xow  this  word 
Pi  kun'  ni  for  Piegans,  I've  always  believed  came  from 
Ap'  1  kun  ni,  which  means  a  badly  tanned  robe,  one 
with  white  spots  on  it.     Isn't  that  so,  Joe?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Joe,  "  that's  so  all  right,  and  you  know 
Ap'  kun  111  is  a  common  name  in  the  tribe  to-day. 
There  are  two  or  three  Indians  and  one  white  man 
that  have  that  name.  This  story  says  that  Ah'  kai  nah 
has  been  shortened  to  Kainah,  and  if  that  is  so  why 
shouldn't  Ap'  1  kun  111  have  been  shortened  to  Pi  kun 
ni.  Then  the  name  of  my  tribe  would  mean  a  robe 
with  hard  white  spots  in  it." 

"  Of  course  it  would,"  said  Hugh,  "  and  I  believe 
that's  what  it  does  mean,  but  I  don't  know  that  we'll 
ever  find  out  for  sure. 

"  Well,  boys,"  he  went  on,  "  let's  turn  in.  Get  out 
early  to-morrow  morning  and  bring  in  your  horses.  I 
want  to  start  before  it  gets  warm,  so  as  to  get  rid  of 
the  flies.  We  may  have  quite  a  ways  to  go  to- 
morrow." 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  SOURCE  OF  AN  UNKNOWN  RIVER 

Early  next  morning  the  tent  was  down,  the  beds 
rolled  and  the  horses  brought  in,  saddled,  and  tied  to 
the  trees.  As  soon  as  breakfast  was  over  the  packing 
began  and  fortunately  was  soon  completed,  for  before 
the  party  started  the  mosquitoes  and  flies  had  begun  to 
be  very  troublesome.  As  soon  as  the  last  lash  rope  was 
tied  and  the  hackamore  shanks  were  looped  around  the 
animals'  necks,  Hugh  mounted  and  rode  through  the 
narrow  strip  of  cottonwood  timber,  plunged  down  into 
the  bed  of  the  creek,  and  then  up  on  the  other  side  and 
in  a  few  moments  reached  the  foot  of  a  high  point  of 
rocks  jutting  out  from  Goat  Mountain  into  the  lake 
and  began  to  climb  the  steep  trail  that  zigzags  up 
its  side. 

The  way  was  rough  and  rocky  and  sometimes  so 
very  steep  that  Jack,  hanging  to  the  mane  of  his  horse, 
threw  one  foot  out  of  the  stirrup  in  order  to  be  ready 
to  jump  in  case  the  horse  should  fall  over  backward. 
The  climb  was  not  long,  however,  and  after  one  or 
two  pauses  to  breathe  the  horses,  the  party  emerged  on 
the  level  top  of  the  point,  where  the  rocks  were  over- 
grown with  green  moss  and  dotted  here  and  there  with 
young  pine  trees.  Jack  had  no  idea  as  to  where  they 
should  go,  but  Hugh's  more  practiced  eye  made  out  a 
dim  game  trail,  which  he  followed  for  some  distance 
through  the  timber,  and  which  at  last  came  out  on  the 

L14 


SOURCE   OF   AN   UNKNOWN   RIVER  115 

slide  rock,  fallen  from  the  side  of  the  mountain  far 
above.  Here  there  was  a  plain  trail  made  in  times  past 
by  the  mountain  bison  and  the  elk  which  passed  up  and 
down  from  the  plains  to  the  recesses  of  the  high  moun- 
tains. Sometimes  the  slide  rock  was  bare  of  vegeta- 
tion;  again  there  would  be  half  a  mile  where  the 
soil  had  slid  down  from  the  mountainside  and  sup- 
ported a  growth  of  willows  or  alders.  Sometimes  the 
climb  was  very  steep,  again  it  was  level,  and  at  last 
the  trail  passed  around  the  head  of  a  deep  ravine,  and 
after  a  climb  of  a  few  feet,  led  out  on  to  grassy  ledges. 

They  were  riding  quietly  along  here,  when  Hugh 
turned  and  waved  his  hand  toward  the  rocks  that  tow- 
ered far  above  them,  and  Jack,  following  the  motion, 
saw  three  white  goats  feeding  two  or  three  hundred 
yards  above  them.  Involuntarily  he  checked  his 
horses,  intending  to  take  a  shot  at  them,  but  seeing 
that  Hugh  had  not  paused,  Jack  thought  better  of  it 
and  rode  on.  After  all,  there  was  no  special  reason  for 
killing  them,  as  the  meat  was  not  needed. 

As  they  went  on  along  the  side  of  the  steep  moun- 
tain toward  the  head  of  the  lake,  they  saw  goats 
several  times,  usually  merely  white  dots  on  the  high 
rocks.  These  alpine  animals  seem  to  suffer  greatly 
from  the  heat,  and  even  in  very  cold  weather  often 
seek  a  shaded  spot  to  get  out  of  the  sun. 

Near  the  head  of  the  lake  the  travelers  crossed  a 
large  stream,  which  came  from  a  basin  running  far 
back  into  the  mountains,  where  they  could  see  great 
fields  of  snow  and  ice.  Then  there  was  a  long  ride 
through  the  green  timber,  during  which  they  passed  the 
head  of  the  lake. 

They  were  evidently  following  the  river  valley,  for, 


n6        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

off  on  the  left,  they  could  hear  the  roar  of  cascades  and 
falls,  and  once,  through  the  open  stems  of  some  tall 
aspens,  Jack  thought  he  saw  spray  rising  from  a  cata- 
ract. Hugh  kept  steadily  onward,  though  so  far  as 
Jack  and  Joe  could  see  all  sign  of  a  trail  had  now  van- 
ished. 

At  length  they  came  to  the  edge  of  a  swollen  river, 
on  the  brink  of  which  Hugh  paused,  and  after  looking 
at  it  for  awhile,  shook  his  head,  turned  his  horse  and 
followed  up  its  bank.  Now  the  going  was  harder, 
and  through  tangled  brush,  interrupted  now  and  then 
by  deep  muddy  holes,  where  springs  or  small  brook- 
lets came  down  from  the  hillsides  above  them.  The 
mosquitoes  and  flies  were  very  bad,  and  each  member 
of  the  party  wore  gloves  and  had  a  handkerchief  tied 
about  his  neck  and  turned  up  under  his  hat  to  protect 
the  back  of  the  neck  and  head.  Hugh  smoked  con- 
stantly, but  even  so,  was  obliged  to  use  his  hands  con- 
tinually to  drive  away  the  insects. 

They  had  just  wallowed  through  a  particularly  deep 
mud  hole  in  which  one  of  the  pack  horses  had  nearly 
mired  down,  when  Hugh  stopped,  dismounted  and 
went  back  to  tighten  a  cinch,  while  Jack  got  off  to  help 
him.  They  were  pulling  on  the  ropes,  and  Joe  was 
trying  to  hold  the  other  horses  to  keep  them  from 
breaking  away,  when,  suddenly,  on  the  hillside  above, 
they  heard  a  crashing  of  sticks  and,  looking  up,  saw  a 
huge  black  moose  trotting  along,  crossing  fallen  logs 
and  rocks  in  his  stride,  until  he  finally  disappeared  in 
the  timber.  The  moose  had  been  so  close  that  they 
could  plainly  see  his  large  horns,  still  soft,  more  or 
less  shapeless  and  velvet  covered,  but  of  course  they 
had  no  opportunity  of  shooting  at  him. 


SOURCE  OF   AN   UNKNOWN   RIVER  117 

"A  good  big  fellow,  wasn't  he,  son?"  said  Hugh, 
and  Jack  assented. 

"  That's  the  first  moose  I've  seen,  Hugh,  since  we 
came  down  from  the  Yellowstone  Park.  Do  you  re- 
member we  killed  one  there?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  remember,  and  I  remember, 
too,  that  we  got  a  bear  or  two  close  to  him." 

"  So  we  did,"  assented  Jack. 

"  There,"  said  Hugh,  as  he  knotted  the  lash  rope, 
11  let's  go  on.     The  flies  make  these  horses  crazy." 

All  day  long  they  continued  on  the  rough  road, 
through  underbrush,  over  rocks  and  around  enormous 
boulders  that  had  fallen  from  the  precipice  above. 
About  three  o'clock  they  reached  a  large  stream  com- 
ing from  the  right,  which  evidently  joined  the  river 
that  they  had  been  following  a  little  further  down. 
Here  it  took  some  time  to  find  a  place  where  the  river 
was  fordable.  The  current  was  swift  and  the  water 
looked  deep. 

No  one  wished  to  have  the  packs  thrown  down  in 
the  stream,  for  this  would  wet  everything  and  might 
even  result  in  the  loss  of  a  horse.  By  following  up 
the  stream  a  few  hundred  yards,  however,  they  found 
a  riffle,  across  which  stretched  a  gravel  bar,  and  here 
they  made  a  crossing  in  water  no  deeper  than  to  the 
horses'  knees.  Not  far  above  this  stream  was  a  wide 
alder  swamp,  which  gave  them  much  trouble.  A  little 
farther  on  they  came  to  a  small  stream  flowing  down 
the  valley,  along  which  ran  an  old  game  trail,  and  fol- 
lowing this,  they  emerged  just  before  sunset  on  a  little 
round  meadow,  at  the  head  of  which  was  a  lake  a 
mile  long  and  a  quarter  of  a  mile  broad.  About  this, 
on  every  side  except  the  lower,  rose  vertical  walls  of 


u8        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

rock,  now  black  in  the  shadow  of  the  high  mountains 
to  the  west. 

"  I  tell  you,  Joe,"  said  Jack,  "  this  is  a  curious  place, 
isn't  it  ?     Cold  and  gloomy  enough/' 

"  Yes,"  said  Joe,  "  I  don't  like  this  much.  You 
can't  see  far.  I  don't  wonder  that  my  people  would 
rather  stay  out  on  the  prairie," 

"  What  shall  we  do  with  the  horses,  Hugh?  "  asked 
Jack.     "  Tie  'em  up,  or  let  them  loose?  " 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  you  may  as  well  let  'em  feed 
and  drag  their  ropes  until  it  gets  dark.  They  are 
pretty  tired,  and  the  feed  is  fairly  good  here.  They 
won't  go  far,  and  before  it  gets  dark  we'll  tie  them  up." 

Away  to  the  left  they  could  see  a  deep  valley  run- 
ning up  to  enormously  high  mountains.  Snow  lay 
everywhere  on  their  crests,  and  even  in  the  valley, 
down  to  within  a  few  hundred  feet  of  the  level  of  the 
little  lake  beside  which  they  camped. 

At  supper  Jack  asked  Hugh's  opinion  where  they 
were  and  whither  they  were  going. 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  it's  a  pretty  sure  thing  that 
we  can't  go  any  farther  up  this  stream.  There's  a 
wall  a  thousand  feet  high  in  front  of  us  and  on  both 
sides,  but  I  guess  we  can  get  up  here  to  the  left  by 
climbing  that  point  of  rocks.  When  we  do  that  we'll 
get  into  the  snow  banks  right  off,  and  I  don't  know  that 
there's  much  profit  for  us  in  that.  However,  we  can 
try  it.  I  believe  that  if  we  get  up  there,  on  or  close  to 
the  snow,  we'll  have  the  everlasting  bulge  on  the  flies, 
for  I  don't  think  they'll  follow  us  there." 

There  was  plenty  of  wood  here,  and  that  night  they 
sat  about  a  good  camp  fire.  The  horses  had  been  pick- 
eted where  they  could  feed  and  yet  would  not  inter- 


SOURCE  OF   AN   UNKNOWN   RIVER  119 

fere  with  each  other.  Night  had  settled  down  cold 
and  frosty  and  the  mosquitoes  had  ceased  to  trouble 
them. 

"  To-morrow  or  next  day,"  said  Hugh,  "  I'd  like  to 
see  where  that  big  river  comes  from  that  we  followed 
up  all  to-day.  I  expect  it  comes  down  out  of  that 
valley  and  from  the  big  snow,  and  I  reckon  we  lost  it 
by  keeping  away  to  the  right.  It's  a  good  thing  that 
we  didn't  have  to  cross  it,  for  if  we  had  I  think  we'd 
have  all  been  swimming.  There's  a  terrible  lot  of 
water  coming  down  from  these  mountains,  and  this 
valley  drains  a  big  lot  of  them." 

"  And  of  course,  it  all  goes  into  the  lakes,  doesn't 
it,  Hugh?  "  asked  Jack. 

"  Sure,"  said  Hugh,  "  that's  the  only  place  it 
can  go." 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  I'd  rather  travel  through  a  lot 
of  brush  than  try  to  get  across  a  big  swift  river  like 
that." 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  you're  right  about  that.  It's 
mean  to  be  caught  in  a  stream,  especially  when  you're 
not  fixed  for  it.  I  remember,  years  ago,  trying  to 
take  some  cattle  across  the  Running  Water  and  being 
carried  down.  My  horse  got  scared  and  commenced  to 
flounder  and  I  rolled  off  to  help.  It  was  in  winter,  and 
I  had  an  old-fashioned  army  overcoat  on  and  got  kind 
of  rolled  up  in  it,  and  I  reckon  I  would  have  drowned 
if  the  cape  of  the  coat  hadn't  caught  on  a  limb  of 
a  dead  tree  that  was  sticking  out  over  the  water  and 
held  me  there  until  some  of  the  boys  came  along  and 
pulled  me  out." 

"That  must  have  been  a  close  call,  White  Bull," 
said  Joe. 


120        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

"  Yes,"  answered  Hugh,  "  it  was  close  enough.  I 
don't  want  one  any  closer." 

"  Now,  White  Bull,"  Joe  went  on,  "  can  we  climb 
this  point  of  the  mountain  over  here?  If  we  do  we'll 
go  up  pretty  near  to  the  head  of  that  big  river  you 
speak  of  and  cross  it  where  it  is  only  a  little  small 
stream." 

"  I  don't  know  yet  whether  we  can  get  up  here  or 
not  We'll  tell  in  the  morning,"  Hugh  replied,  "  but 
if  we  can,  I  think  we'll  find  good  traveling  right  up 
over  the  snow  banks  and  we  may  find  a  place  up  there 
where  we  can  camp.  I  don't  feel  any  way  sure  that 
we'll  find  a  place  where  we  can  get  feed  for  the  horses. 
We'll  know  more  about  that  when  we  get  up  there. 
If  we  can't  find  feed,  why,  then  we'll  have  to  come 
back  and  camp  here  or  else  find  another  trail  down  inta 
the  valley  of  the  main  river,  and  take  the  horses  down 
there  over  night." 

When  Jack  went  down  to  the  shore  of  the  lake  the 
next  morning,  he  was  interested  to  see  a  pair  of  little 
harlequin  ducks  swimming  close  to  the  beach.  He 
recognized  them  from  colored  pictures  that  he  had 
seen  of  the  species,  and  felt  sure  that  the  birds  must 
be  breeding  somewhere  about.  Looking  at  them  a 
second  time,  however,  he  saw  that  both  birds  were 
males.  They  made  him  think  of  the  time  of  the  year, 
and  he  realized  that  now,  of  course,  the  females  would 
be  sitting  on  their  eggs,  while  the  males  would  be 
enjoying  a  bachelor  existence  and  getting  ready  to  shed 
their  winter  plumage  and  to  put  on  their  brief  summer 
dress. 

As  Jack  squatted  on  a  rock,  rubbing  his  hands,  face 
and  head  with  the  icy  water,  his  eyes  were  busy  search- 


SOURCE  OF   AN   UNKNOWN   RIVER  121 

ing  the  mountainside  for  signs  of  living  creatures. 
With  the  naked  eye  he  could  see  no  game  high  up  on 
the  mountain,  but  just  as  he  was  about  to  turn  from 
the  shore,  he  happened  to  look  up  the  lake  and  there, 
lying  in  a  sort  of  cave  in  the  rocks,  only  a  short  dis- 
tance away,  was  a  white  goat.  The  same  impulse  to 
shoot  that  he  had  felt  yesterday  assailed  him,  but  he 
did  not  yield  to  it.  Instead,  he  felt  rather  ashamed  of 
his  desire  to  kill. 

At  breakfast  he  told  Hugh  about  the  goat,  and  his 
friend  rather  laughed  at  him  and  said,  "  Wait  until  you 
have  been  out  a  few  weeks  and  then  you  won't  be  so 
anxious  to  kill  things,  unless  you  need  to.  I  have 
seen  that  every  time  you  go  back  East  you  catch  a  little 
of  the  pilgrim  fever,  and  you  have  to  be  out  here  for  a 
week  or  two  before  you  can  shake  off  the  disease." 

"  Maybe  you're  right,  Hugh,"  said  Jack.  "  It  does 
seem  pretty  silly  to  want  to  kill  every  wild  thing  I 
see. 

"  Well,  yes,"  rejoined  Hugh,  "  there's  no  reason 
for  killing  anything  without  you've  got  some  use  for 
it.  If  you  need  a  shirt  or  a  pair  of  buckskin  pants, 
kill  what  hides  you  need  and  have  your  clothing  made, 
or  if  you  need  food,  kill  what  you  want  to  eat,  but 
don't  shoot  at  things  just  to  see  whether  you  can  hit 
them  or  not.  That's  just  a  pilgrim  trick,  and  you've 
been  out  here  too  long  to  be  guilty  of  things  like  that." 

"  Now,  I  tell  you  what,  boys,"  said  Hugh,  after 
breakfast  was  over,  stooping  over  the  fire  to  pick  up 
a  brand  with  which  to  light  his  pipe,  "  we  don't  know 
what  there  is  up  above  us  here.  We  don't  even  know 
that  we  can  climb  this  hill.  Now,  what  do  you  say 
to  leaving  the  pack  horses  here  and  taking  the  saddle 


122         JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

horses  and  going  off  to  prospect?  It  isn't  very  far, 
and  if  we  can  find  a  good  camping  place  we  can  come 
back  here  and  get  the  horses  and  take  them  up  there." 

"  Why,"  said  Jack,  "  that  seems  to  me  the  best  thing 
to  do.  We  don't  want  to  pack  up  and  take  a  train  up 
there  and  then  find  that  we've  got  to  drive  back  and 
unpack  and  camp  here  again." 

"  No,"  said  Hugh,  "  we  don't,  and  I  believe  we 
might  as  well  go  up  first  and  find  out  where  we're 
going.  There's  one  thing,  though,  that  we'd  better 
do,"  he  went  on,  "  I've  an  idea  that  there's  some  bears 
up  here,  and  likely  bears  that  haven't  been  hunted 
much.  I  believe  that  it  would  be  a  good  idea  for  us 
to  hoist  up  the  main  part  of  our  grub  into  one  of  these 
trees  and  tie  it  there,  so  that  if  a  bear  should  come  into 
camp  he  won't  tear  it  all  to  pieces.  Suppose  you  boys 
get  a  couple  of  sling  ropes  and  we'll  take  our  flour  and 
bacon  and  coffee  and  sugar  and  put  it  in  a  safe  place." 

The  boys  brought  the  sling  ropes  and  before  long 
two  stout  young  pine  trees  were  each  decorated  with  a 
couple  of  large  bundles.  Then  they  saddled  and  Jack 
said  to  Joe,  "  If  any  bears  should  come  prowling 
around  here,  Joe,  won't  they  stampede  the  horses,  and 
make  trouble  for  us?" 

"  I  guess  they  might,"  said  Joe.  "  We  ought  to  tie 
'em  up  tight." 

Joe  took  the  ax,  and  going  a  few  steps  down  the 
creek,  cut  some  stout  alder  stems  from  which  he  man- 
ufactured half  a  dozen  strong  picket  pins,  then  going 
out  to  where  the  horses  were,  they  drove  a  second  pin 
close  to  each  picket  pin  that  stood  in  the  ground,  so 
that  the  heads  of  the  two  pins  crossed  and  supported 
each  other. 


SOURCE  OF   AN   UNKNOWN   RIVER  123 

"  Now,"  said  Joe,  "  take  a  half  hitch  around  these 
two  pins  with  the  lariat  and  I'll  bet  the  pack  horses 
can't  get  away." 

Hugh,  who  saw  what  they  were  doing,  nodded  ap- 
proval, and  presently  they  all  climbed  into  the  saddles, 
and  Hugh  leading  the  way,  they  crossed  the  little 
brook  which  flowed  out  from  the  lake  and  headed 
toward  the  point  of  the  mountain  which  they  hoped 
to  climb.  Before  they  had  reached  it  Hugh  found  a 
game  trail  and  followed  it,  for  he  knew,  as  all  moun- 
tain men  do,  that  game  always  selects  the  easiest  road 
across  natural  obstacles.  The  climb  was  neither  steep 
nor  long,  though  it  was  a  little  slippery,  for  the  upper 
end  of  the  trail  was  wet  with  snow  that  had  just 
melted.  When  they  emerged  on  top  of  the  shoulder, 
they  could  see  extending  up  the  valley  before  them  a 
long  level  snow  bank,  while  to  the  right  the  steep  slope 
was  everywhere  strewn  with  huge  boulders  and  rock 
fragments  that  had  rolled  down  from  the  mountain- 
side ;  some  in  past  ages  and  some  very  recently. 

Hugh  paused  until  the  two  boys  came  up  and  then 
said,  "  We  may  as  well  keep  up  here  along  the  main 
valley  and  see  how  far  we  can  go  and  what  we  can 
find.  We  could  not  take  the  horses  along  the  moun- 
tainside to  the  west.  If  we  go  that  way  we'll  have  to 
go  on  foot.  I'd  like  to  see  what  there  is  on  the  other 
side  of  that  high  wall.  I  believe  it's  Pacific  Coast 
water." 

"  Yes,  Hugh,"  said  Jack,  "  let's  go  on  up  the  valley 
and  maybe  we  can  cross  over  to  those  pine  trees  on  the 
other  side.  It  looks  as  if  there  might  be  a  good  camp- 
ing place  there,  though  I  don't  see  any  feed  for  the 
horses." 


T24        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

"  Come  on  then,"  said  Hugh. 

For  a  mile  or  more  they  rode  slowly  on  over  the 
hard  snow  field,  into  which  the  horses  hoofs  did  not 
sink  at  all.  On  the  right  rose  first  a  steep  slope  cov- 
ered with  huge  angular  rock  fragments,  and  then  above 
that  successive  walls  of  vertical  cliff,  in  each  recess 
and  crevice  of  which  there  was  a  drift  of  snow.  To 
the  left,  the  snow  field  sloped  gradually  to  an  almost 
flat  surface  of  rock,  over  which  flowed  a  hundred  little 
trickles  of  water.  There  was,  here  and  there,  a  little 
soil,  green  with  springing  grass  or  weed  blades  and  in 
many  places  spangled  with  beautiful  alpine  flowers  of 
variegated  colors. 

At  one  place  Jack  dismounted  and  gathered  a  hand- 
ful of  these  plants,  which  he  looked  at  as  they  rode 
along.  Many  of  them  were  much  like  the  dog-tooth 
violet  found  in  the  woods  in  the  East  in  the  early 
spring,  others  looked  something  like  dandelions,  but 
had  tall,  straight  stems;  still  others  were  like  the  col- 
umbine of  early  summer,  but  instead  of  being  red  were 
blue  and  white.  All  were  beautiful  and  fresh,  and  all 
were  growing  within  a  short  distance  of  the  edge  of  the 
snow  banks  and  were  watered  by  the  cold  trickle  from 
the  melting  snow. 

As  they  went  on  the  travelers  could  see  at  the  end  of 
the  valley,  now  close  to  them,  a  great  wall  of  rock 
over  which  plunged  cataracts  of  white  water,  while 
from  the  mountains  on  the  right  came  sharp  gray  lines, 
which  as  they  drew  near  them,  Jack  recognized  as 
moraines — the  soil  and  gravel  pushed  to  one  side  by 
the  progress  of  a  glacier.  He  felt  sure  that  this  valley 
along  which  they  were  traveling,  and  perhaps  also  the 
narrow  valley  in  which  lay  the  river  and  the  great 


SOURCE   OF   AN    UNKNOWN    RIVER  125 

lakes,  had  ages  ago  been  carved  out  of  the  solid  moun- 
tains by  some  vast  glacier,  such  as  he  had  seen  two 
years  before  on  the  British  Columbia  coast  and  the 
work  of  which  Mr.  Fannin  had  more  than  once  clearly 
explained  to  him. 

They  were  riding  quietly  along,  looking  at  the  moun- 
tains, the  snow  fields  and  the  flower  beds  when,  almost 
from  beneath  the  feet  of  Hugh's  horse,  a  bird  spotted 
white  and  brown  rose  from  the  ground  and,  with  a 
loud  cackle,  scaled  off  ahead  of  them  and  alighting  on 
a  rock,  stood  with  head  and  tail  up,  still  uttering  a 
sharp  cry.  Jack  recognized  it  at  once  as  a  ptarmigan 
and  reached  for  his  rifle  to  see  whether  he  could  kill 
it,  but  Hugh,  who  had  looked  around,  called  back  to 
him,  "  I  wouldn't  shoot  at  it,  son.  You  see  these  birds 
have  their  nests  now,  and  if  you  kill  the  old  birds  that 
means  that  the  young  ones  will  not  be  hatched.  Be- 
sides that,  the  old  ones  are  not  fit  to  eat  now." 

"  That's  so,  Hugh,  I  have  got  to  teach  myself  not  to 
want  to  kill  everything  that  I  see.  I'm  a  regular  pil- 
grim about  that,  and  you'll  have  to  watch  me,  and  I'll 
watch  myself,  too." 

A  little  farther  along  they  left  the  snow  bank  and 
pushed  on  over  bare  rounded  stones,  some  of  them  of 
great  size.  On  the  mountain  above  him  Jack  saw 
two  great  moraines,  gradually  approaching  one  an- 
other, one  coming  down  from  the  right  and  one  from 
the  left,  but  with  a  wide  space  between  their  lower 
ends.  He  was  looking  at  this,  when,  without  warning, 
he  heard  all  about  him  the  rustle  of  wings  and  sweet 
chirping  whistles,  and  suddenly  a  large  flock  of  gray- 
crowned  finches  alighted  en  the  ground  and  on  the 
stones   about  him.     They  walked  busily  hither  and 


126        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

thither  picking  up  something,  though  he  could  not  see 
what,  and  it  seemed  impossible  that  there  could  be 
seeds  or  any  other  vegetable  food  on  the  bare  rocks. 
The  birds  were  absolutely  tame  and  paid  no  attention 
to  the  animals,  except  when  they  walked  close  to  them ; 
then  a  few  wing  beats  would  take  the  threatened  bird 
out  of  the  horse's  way,  and  it  would  alight  and  again 
begin  to  feed.  The  ashy  crown  of  the  head,  the  brown 
body  and  the  rosy  tinge  of  the  upper  and  lower  parts 
were  plainly  to  be  seen,  and  Jack  thought  again  that 
he  had  never  known  such  beautiful  little  birds,  or 
any  that  seemed  so  tame  or  confiding. 

By  this  time  the  precipice  at  the  head  of  the  valley 
was  close  to  them  and  they  were  obliged  to  turn  to  the 
left  and  cross  the  stream,  which,  though  wide  and  tur- 
bulent, was  not  deep.  On  the  east  side  the  land  rose 
sharply  in  one  or  two  terraces,  and  then  the  travelers 
found  themselves  on  another  snow  bank,  just  beyond 
which  rose  some  stunted  pine  timber. 

At  the  edge  of  this  they  halted  to  take  a  look  back 
over  the  valley,  and  when  they  did  so,  Hugh  said, 
"  Well,  I  reckon  we  are  smart  hunters ;  look  over 
there." 

The  boys  looked,  and  not  half  a  mile  below  where 
they  had  passed  along,  but  hidden  from  them  during 
their  passage  by  several  rocky  elevations,  were  seen 
three  bears,  one  large  and  two  very  small  ones.  They 
were  working  along  the  hillside,  apparently  looking  for 
insects,  for  the  largest  was  busily  employed  in  turning 
over  stones,  and  the  little  ones  were  imitating  her  in 
so  far  as  their  strength  permitted,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  keeping  pretty  close  to  her,  and  every  few  min- 
utes rushing  to  her  head  and  putting  their  noses  down 
to  the  ground  as  if  eating. 


SOURCE   OF   AN   UNKNOWN   RIVER  127 

Hugh  took  out  his  glasses  and  looked  at  the  bears 
for  a  long  time.  "  It's  an  old  one  and  a  couple  of 
cubs,"  he  remarked  at  last,  "  and  I  don't  believe  they've 
been  out  very  long.  They're  working  hard  over  there 
and  of  course,  if  we  had  known  they  were  there,  it 
would  be  easy  enough  to  get  them  all  as  we  came  along. 
I  don't  really  know  that  we  need  them,  except  that  I 
suppose  we'd  all  be  glad  to  take  in  some  good  bear 
hides,  and  hides  seem  to  be  prime  now.  Then,  too, 
those  little  fellows  would  be  good  eating,  I  reckon, 
though  they  are  pretty  small.  Not  much  bigger,  I 
should  think,  than  young  shotes." 

"Well,  but,  Hugh,"  said  Jack,  "oughtn't  we  to 
have  seen  them  as  we  came  along?  " 

"  No,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  don't  see  how  we  could  have 
done  so.  Of  course,  if  we'd  been  hunting,  we'd  have 
taken  a  good  many  looks  over  into  that  valley,  but  as 
we  weren't  hunting,  we  just  rode  along  and,  of  course, 
those  shelves  of  rock  that  you  see  there  hid  the  bears 
from  us  just  as  they  hid  us  from  the  bears.  Of  course, 
it's  possible  that  they  may  be  there  when  we  go  back 
to-night,  and  if  they  are,  why  you  and  Joe  can  maybe 
get  a  shot  at  them." 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  it's  too  late  now  for  us  to  do 
anything.  Let's  see  what  there  is  beyond  this 
timber. 

In  the  timber  which  grew  on  a  little  crest  running 
parallel  with  the  axis  of  the  valley,  there  was  no  snow 
and  a  good  camping  place,  but  on  the  other  side  of  the 
little  stream,  though  the  ground  was  bare  and  some 
flowers  were  springing,  there  was  no  grass,  nor  in- 
deed, wherever  they  went  during  the  day,  could  they 
find  anything  that  looked  like  feed  enough  to  support 
their  horses,  if  they  should  bring  them  over. 


128        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

"  This  would  be  a  mighty  handy  place  to  camp, 
Jack,"  said  Joe,  "  but  I  don't  see  anything  here  for 
the  horses  to  eat." 

"  No,"  said  Hugh,  "  there's  no  feed  over  here  at  all, 
except  those  weeds  that  we  passed  this  morning  on 
the  other  side  of  the  valley.  Maybe  there's  feed  enough 
there  to  keep  the  horses  for  a  day  or  two,  but  no  more. 
We'd  be  a  lot  better  off  if  we  were  camped  over  here ; 
that  is,  provided  we  wanted  to  hunt  here  or  climb  the 
mountains,  but  we've  got  to  have  grass  for  our  horses 
to  eat,  and  I  reckon  we'll  have  to  leave  them  where 
they  are  and  ride  three  or  four  miles  every  morning, 
before  we  begin  to  prospect  around  these  mountains 
and  the  valleys  between  them." 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  there  doesn't  seem  to  be  any 
feed  here,  and  I  don't  see  any  other  way  than  to  do 
as  you  say." 

"  Let's  ride  up  this  valley  here  to  the  eastward," 
said  Hugh.  "  There  may  be  some  sheltered  warm 
spot  up  there  where  the  snow  will  be  gone,  though  it's 
no  ways  likely  the  grass  has  started  yet." 

They  crossed  the  stream  and  pushed  up  through  the 
snow  which  lay  among  the  pine  timber.  It  was  not 
deep  nor  crusted  and  the  going  was  easy,  and  after  the 
first  steep  ascent  they  found  themselves  in  an  open 
smooth  valley,  which  sloped  very  gradually  upward 
between  two  tall  peaks.  Here  the  snow  was  disap- 
pearing and,  as  they  ascended,  they  presently  found 
the  ground  bare,  but  as  Hugh  had  said,  the  grass  had 
not  yet  started.  There  were  a  few  tufts  of  brown 
dried-up  herbage,  but  nothing  that  could  be  called  feed, 
even  for  so  small  a  pack  train  as  theirs.  In  the  soft 
earth  at  the  margin  of  a  little  lake  that  lay  near  the 


SOURCE  OF   AN   UNKNOWN   RIVER  129 

head  of  this  valley,  Hugh  pointed  out  the  tracks  of 
several  sheep,  among  them  two  old  rams  of  great  size, 
and  a  well-worn  sheep  trail  led  back  from  this  lake 
up  over  the  rocks  to  high  pinnacles  behind. 

"  I  reckon  there  are  lots  of  sheep  here,  son,"  said 
Hugh,  "  but  it  isn't  time  to  kill  them  now  and  we'll 
have  to  be  satisfied  with  a  young  ram  now  and  then. 
I  hope  they  won't  be  very  strong  of  garlic." 

"  I  hope  not,"  said  Jack. 

A  little  later  they  turned  about  to  return  to  camp, 
following  the  same  trail  by  which  they  had  come  up. 
As  they  were  going  down  through  the  timber,  Hugh 
drew  up  his  horse  and  pointed  out  to  Jack  a  porcupine 
waddling  slowly  over  the  snow.  "  There  is  some 
game  for  you,  son,  if  you  want  it,"  he  said,  "but  I 
wouldn't  waste  a  cartridge  on  it.  If  you  want  to 
kill  it,  knock  it  on  the  head  with  a  club.  Por- 
cupine is  pretty  good  meat — for  those  that  like 
it.  The  Northern  Indians,  those  that  live  in  the  tim- 
ber at  least,  eat  them  whenever  they  can  get  hold 
of  them." 

Jack  dismounted,  and  getting  a  long  stick,  ran  after 
the  porcupine  and  poked  it  and  the  beast  stopped,  put 
its  nose  on  the  ground  between  its  forepaws,  erected  its 
quills  in  all  directions,  and  stood  there  thrashing  with 
its  great  tail  as  if  quite  prepared  for  war.  Jack  gave 
it  a  poke  or  two  and  then  examined  some  of  the  quills, 
which  had  been  thrust  into  the  end  of  the  stick,  and 
then  returning  to  his  horse,  remounted  and  rode  up 
beside  the  others. 

"  What,"  said  Hugh,  "  aren't  you  going  to  take  it 
along  with  you?  " 

"  No,"  said  Jack,  "  I  guess  not.  ,  We've  plenty  of 


130        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

food  in  camp  and  this  time  I'll  keep  myself  from  kill- 
ing, instead  of  having  you  warn  me." 

By  the  time  they  had  started  back,  the  sun  had  fallen 
behind  the  great  peak  that  overhung  their  road,  the 
air  was  cold,  and  the  melting  of  the  snow  field  had 
stopped.  Here  in  these  high  mountains  winter  lingers 
long,  and  though  in  the  middle  of  the  day  it  may  be 
warm,  it  is  cold  at  night. 

When  they  reached  the  point  in  the  trail  opposite 
where  they  had  seen  the  bears  earlier  in  the  day,  Jack 
and  Joe  dismounted  and  went  to  look  down  in  the 
valley  to  see  if  they  could  discover  them,  but  as  they 
saw  nothing,  they  went  on. 

When  they  came  in  sight  of  camp,  however,  it  be- 
came evident  that  there  was  some  excitement  there. 
The  horses  were  frightened  and  were  running  to  and 
fro,  apparently  trying  to  pull  up  their  picket  pins ;  but 
what  first  attracted  the  attention  of  the  men  was  the 
appearance  of  their  tent,  which  seemed  to  have~been 
taken  down  and  transformed  into  a  white  bundle,  mov- 
ing a  little  now  and  then,  but  for  the  most  part  quite 
still. 

Hugh  looked  for  a  moment  and  then  said,  "  Come 
on,  there  is  trouble  down  there,  and  I'm  afraid  some  of 
those  horses  will  get  hurt  if  we  don't  hurry."  He  put 
spurs  to  his  horse  and  galloped  down  the  steep  descent 
as  if  it  had  been  a  bit  of  level  prairie.  Jack  and  Joe, 
though  both  suspecting  what  had  taken  place,  said 
nothing,  but  followed,  and  when  they  had  crossed  the 
little  river  and  rode  over  the  level  meadow  toward 
camp,  Hugh  was  sitting  on  his  horse  by  the  tent,  with 
as  broad  a  smile  on  his  face  as  Jack  had  ever  seen. 
The  tent,  converted  into  a  small  bundle  of  less  size 


SOURCE   OF   AN   UNKNOWN   RIVER  131 

than  a  barrel,  though  somewhat  longer,  was  shiver- 
ing and  shaking,  and  from  it  came  groans,  growls  and 
moans,  which  sounded  mysterious  but  funny. 

"  That's  a  comical  thing,"  said  Hugh.  "  That's 
one  of  the  funniest  things  I  ever  saw.  Do  you  know 
what's  inside  that  tent,  son?"  he  added. 

"  No,"  said  Jack,  "  I  don't  know,  but  I  guess  likely 
it's  a  bear," 

"  Right  you  are,"  said  Hugh,  "  and  I  reckon  we'll 
have  to  bloody  up  the  tent  a  little  to  get  him  out.  Take 
a  shot  at  it  and  try  to  kill  the  bea<t." 

"  All  right,"  said  Jack,  as  he  loaded  his  rifle,  while 
Joe  called  out,  "  White  Bull,  do  you  see  the  cubs  in 
the  trees?" 

Hugh  and  Jack  both  turned,  and  there,  perched  high 
up  in  the  stunted  pine  trees,  were  two  little  cubs,  each 
about  as  large  as  a  small  setter  dog,  though  of  course 
not  standing  nearly  so  high. 

"  Well,  I  swan,"  said  Hugh,  "  if  that  old  bear  and 
her  family  didn't  come  down  here  to  make  us  grief. 
Jack,  you  kill  the  old  one  in  the  tent,  and  Joe  and  I 
will  settle  these  cubs.  We'll  have  some  meat  to  eat 
now." 

Jack  fired  a  shot  through  the  tent  and  a  squawl  of 
rage  and  pain  was  followed  by  a  series  of  struggles, 
but  at  last  the  tent  lay  still,  and  below  the  point  where 
Jack's  ball  had  entered,  a  little  red  stain  began  to  ap- 
pear on  the  canvas.  Hugh  and  Joe  shot  the  cubs  in 
the  trees.  The  tent  was  unrolled  and  the  old  bear 
extracted  from  it.  It  was  evident  that  she  had  entered 
it  to  investigate  its  contents  and  in  overhauling  things 
had  knocked  down  the  poles.  Her  struggles  had 
wrapped  her  so  tightly  in  the  canvas  that  she  could  not 


132        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

use  her  legs  or  paws  to  tear  her  way  out,  and  she  had 
lain  there  firmly  bound  in  the  stout  duck,  until  ven- 
geance, in  the  shape  of  Jack,  descended  on  her  from 
the  hillside  above. 

The  evening  and  a  part  of  the  next  morning  were 
spent  in  skinning  the  bears,  and  stretching  their  hides ; 
and  many  were  the  jokes  that  the  hunters  made  over 
this  curious  capture. 


CHAPTER   XI 

THE     RETREAT 

It  was  noon  the  next  day  before  the  various  chores 
about  camp  were  done.  The  dishes  and  some  small 
packages  of  food  that  had  been  left  in  the  tent  were 
badly  mixed  up  and  a  number  of  packages  torn  open 
and  their  contents  ruined.  Hugh,  fortunately,  had  put 
most  of  the  coffee  in  one  of  the  caches  in  the  trees, 
but  that  which  had  been  left  in  the  tent  had  been  scat- 
tered and  trodden  into  the  ground,  so  that  only  two 
or  three  cupfuls  of  the  berries  could  be  picked  up  and 
used. 

"  I  tell  you,  Hugh,"  said  Jack,  "  it  was  mighty  lucky 
that  you  put  that  food  in  the  trees.  If  it  hadn't  been 
for  that  I  expect  we  should  have  had  to  go  back  to 
the  Agency  to  get  more  grub." 

"  Yes,"  replied  Hugh,  "  I  reckon  we  would,  but  I 
knew  there  were  bears  around  here,  and  you  never  can 
tell  just  what  a  bear  will  do  when  it  comes  to  a  camp. 
Sometimes  they  are  so  shy  that  they  will  run  away 
as  soon  as  they  smell  the  camp,  at  others  they  will 
prowl  around  it  for  a  day  without  touching  anything, 
or  again,  maybe  they'll  go  right  into  the  tent  and 
destroy  everything  that  is  there.  I  remember,  one 
time  down  in  Colorado,  a  bear  came  into  camp  while 
we  were  out  prospecting  and  tore  up  and  scattered 
around  everything  that  we  had;  he  even  tore  our 
blankets  to  pieces.     We  had  to  start  into  the  settle- 

133 


i34         JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

ments  at  once  for  a  new  outfit.  Of  course,  we  fol- 
lowed up  the  bear  and  killed  him,  but  that  wasn't  much 
satisfaction. 

"  We  are  mighty  lucky  that  some  of  these  horses 
did  not  break  their  necks,  or  get  away  and  get  lost  in 
this  brush.  Of  course,  the  chances  are  we  could  have 
trailed  them  and  found  them,  but  on  the  other  hand 
if  a  snow  had  come  before  we  did  find  them,  we 
might  have  lost  them  for  good.  They'd  have  been 
likely  to  get  tied  up  in  the  brush  with  their  ropes  and 
to  have  starved  to  death." 

"  Yes,"  said  Joe,  "  we  came  out  of  it  mighty  lucky, 
but  I  never  expect  to  understand  how  that  bear 
wrapped  herself  up  in  that  tent  so  that  she  couldn't 
move." 

"  No,"  said  Hugh,  "  that's  a  mighty  curious  per- 
formance, and  the  queer  part  of  it  is  that  the  tent 
is  just  as  good  as  ever  it  was,  except  for  the  bullet 
holes  and  the  blood  on  it.  She  didn't  tear  it  a  mite, 
and  that,  of  course,  shows  that  somehow  she  must 
have  got  wrapped  up  in  it  just  as  the  tent  fell.  If 
she'd  had  a  chance  to  use  her  arms  at  all  she  would 
have  torn  the  canvas  to  ribbons  and  we  would  never 
have  got  her. 

"  Well,"  he  continued,  "  it's  too  late  to  start  out 
prospecting  now,  and  I  reckon  I'll  stay  in  camp  the 
rest  of  the  day  and  maybe  clean  the  blood  off  this 
tent  and  generally  get  things  in  shape.  What  do  you 
boys  mean  to  do?  " 

"  Why,"  said  Jack,  "  I  don't  know.  I  believe  I'd 
like  to  go  up  around  this  lake  and  follow  up  the  valley 
until  I  come  to  that  wall  of  rock  at  the  head.  I  expect 
that  must  be  the  divide,  isn't  it?" 


THE    RETREAT  135 

"  I  reckon  so,"  said  Hugh.  "I  believe  if  we  get  up 
on  top  of  this  next  ridge  ahead  of  us,  we'll  see  the 
waters  running  the  other  way  and  down  into  Flat 
Head  Lake  and  so  on  into  the  Columbia  and  the  Pa- 
cific Ocean." 

The  boys  started  and  proceeded  up  the  valley.  Close 
to  the  margin  of  the  lake  was  a  thick  growth  of  alders, 
but  these  extended  only  a  few  yards  back,  and  between 
them  and  the  sharp  slope  of  the  mountain  there  was  a 
level  space  thickly  covered  with  huge  rock  fragments, 
among  which  they  picked  their  way  without  much 
difficulty. 

The  day  was  bright  and  still,  but  the  air  so  keen 
that  the  mosquitoes  and  flies  were  not  troublesome. 

Part  way  up  the  lake,  Jack,  who  had  been  watching 
something  on  a  great  rock  which  rose  above  the  water's 
surface,  reached  out  his  hand  and  motioned  to  Joe 
not  to  move,  and  then,  taking  out  his  glasses,  looked 
at  the  moving  object,  which  proved  to  be  two  tiny 
harlequin  ducks  busily  engaged  in  dressing  their 
feathers. 

The  boys  approached  them  slowly  and  carefully, 
stopping  whenever  the  ducks  ceased  the  operations  to 
look  about  them,  and  then  going  on  when  the  birds 
were  busy,  and  at  last  they  had  come  to  within  thirty 
or  forty  yards  of  them,  and  through  the  glasses  could 
see  them  almost  as  plainly  as  if  they  had  been  within 
arm's  length. 

They  were  beautiful  birds  and  their  curiously  varie- 
gated colors  stood  out  plainly.  The  deep  rich  blue  of 
the  body,  spotted  here  and  there  with  white  and  rich 
brown  and  black,  and  their  trim  smooth  appearance 
made  them  very  pretty  objects.     During  one  of  Jack's 


136        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

inspections,  Joe,  whose  eyes  were  wandering  about  up 
the  valley  and  over  the  mountainside,  touched  Jack's 
arm,  and  said,  "  I  think  I  see  a  goat." 

"  Where  ?  "  asked  Jack,  without  moving. 

"  Look  up  the  valley  down  close  to  the  grass  on  that 
red  cliff.  There's  something  white  lying  against  it.  I 
thought  I  saw  it  move  just  now." 

Jack  turned  his  glasses  in  the  direction  in  which  Joe 
pointed,  and  after  a  little  search,  discovered  a  goat 
lying  in  what  looked  like  a  sort  of  cave  in  the  rock. 
"  Sure  enough,"  he  said,  "  it's  a  goat,  Joe,  but  how  can 
we  get  at  it?  It  will  surely  see  us  before  we  can 
reach  any  cover." 

"Yes,"  said  Joe,  "pretty  sure  to  see  us,  of  course; 
nothing  to  hide  behind  at  all." 

"  I  don't  see  how  to  get  at  it,  except  to  crawl  up  to 
the  edge  of  the  hill  and  there  maybe  we'll  find  rocks 
to  get  behind.     Let's  try  it  anyway,"  said  Jack. 

They  started,  Joe  in  the  lead,  and  crept  slowly 
toward  the  edge  of  the  valley,  but  before  they  had 
reached  it  the  goat  slowly  rose  to  its  feet,  and  immedi- 
ately the  two  boys  sank  to  the  ground  and  waited, 
without  moving.  The  goat  did  not  seem  to  be 
alarmed.  It  took  a  long  look  down  the  valley  and 
then  looked  up  at  the  mountainside  opposite.  Then 
it  turned  and  very  slowly  walked  away  from  the  cave 
by  which  it  had  been  lying,  and,  turning,  began  to 
ascend  what  looked  to  the  boys  like  an  absolutely 
perpendicular  cliff.  The  animal  did  not  hurry,  but 
walked  along  in  deliberate  fashion,  sometimes  stopping 
and  lowering  its  head,  as  if  to  take  a  bite  of  grass,  and 
again,  turning  and  looking  back  over  the  way  it  had 
come  or  out  over  the  valley.     Still  its  advance  was 


THE    RETREAT  137 

steady,  and  presently  it  walked  behind  a  projection  of 
rock  and  was  not  seen  again. 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  did  you  ever  see  anything  like 
that?  That  beast  just  walked  right  straight  up  the 
face  of  that  cliff  as  a  fly  would  walk  up  the  wall  of  a 
room." 

"  It's  queer,"  answered  Joe ;  "  I  could  hardly  believe 
that  I  saw  what  I  saw.  Those  goats  must  have  pow- 
erful medicine  to  be  able  to  do  things  like  that." 

"  It  sure  looks  so,"  replied  Jack,  "  but  I  tell  you 
what  I  want  to  do.  Let's  notice  just  where  that  goat 
was  lying  and  where  it  went,  and  let's  go  over  there 
and  see  if  the  rock  is  right  up  and  down,  as  it  looks. 
I'd  like  to  see  whether  a  man  could  go  up  where  that 
goat  went." 

"  Yes,"  said  Joe,  "  so  would  I." 

Rising,  the  boys  walked  over  to  the  place  and  had 
no  great  difficulty  in  scrambling  up  to  where  the  goat 
had  been  lying.  The  tracks  which  they  saw  before 
they  got  there  told  them  that  during  the  night  the 
goat  had  been  down  in  the  valley  feeding,  and  had 
gone  up  to  this  cave  to  rest,  in  the  heat  of  the  day. 
The  goat's  bed  had  been  stamped  out  among  the  shale 
where  a  trickle  of  water  came  down  from  the  slate 
above,  and  this  accounted  for  a  dark  patch  on  the 
goat's  side  that  both  boys  had  noticed.  It  had  been 
lying  in  the  mud. 

Then  they  followed  where  the  goat  had  gone  after 
leaving  its  bed.  A  shelf  of  rock  about  a  foot  wide 
led  along  the  face  of  the  precipice  for  thirty  or  forty 
yards  and  was  evidently  a  much-used  goat  trail.  It 
was  pretty  narrow  for  the  boys,  but  by  going  very  gin- 
gerly, holding  themselves  as  close  as  possible  to  the 


138        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

rocks,  they  got  to  the  point  where  the  animals  had 
turned  off  up  the  hill.  Here  the  water  had  worn  a 
little  course  by  following  a  crack  in  the  shale,  and  there 
was  a  ravine,  if  it  could  be  called  that,  a  foot  or  two 
deep  and  as  wide  at  the  top.  Moreover,  the  face  of  the 
precipice,  instead  of  being  vertical,  leaned  back  a  little 
from  the  valley.  In  the  ravine  and  on  both  sides  of  it 
the  rocks  were  much  worn  by  the  passage  of  animals, 
and  to  both  the  boys  it  seemed  clear  that  this  was  the 
regular  trail  followed  by  the  goats. 

"  What  do  you  think,  Jack?  "  said  Joe.  "  Could  a 
man  climb  up  there  ?  " 

"  Well,  I  tell  you  what,"  said  Jack.  "  If  you  will 
hold  my  gun  I'm  going  to  try.  I  believe  anybody  can 
climb  up  there,  but,  of  course,  he  wouldn't  want  to  do 
it  with  much  of  a  load  on  his  back." 

"  I'll  take  the  guns,"  said  Joe,  "  but  don't  you 
climb  too  far,  and  look  out  that  you  don't  slip 
and  fall.  A  man  might  bump  himself  pretty  badly 
rolling  down  here,  and  it's  quite  a  drop  down  to  the 
rocks  below." 

"  All  right,"  said  Jack,  "  I'll  look  out." 

He  gave  Joe  the  gun  and  started  to  climb.  It  was 
slow  work,  for  in  many  places  the  rock  was  very 
smooth,  and  in  others,  where  there  was  a  little  knob  or 
protuberance  on  which  to  rest  hand  or  foot,  it  was 
rotten  and  broke  under  his  weight.  On  the  whole, 
however,  the  going  was  easier  than  he  had  thought, 
and  he  went  thirty  or  forty  yards  to  a  point  where  the 
climbing  became  easy,  and  then  determined  to  return. 
Going  back  was  harder  than  coming  up,  for  he  could 
not  see  where  to  put  his  feet  and  was  obliged  to  feel 
around  blindly  for  footholds.     Sometimes,  when  he 


THE    RETREAT  139 

had  found  one  and  tested  it  by  resting  his  weight  on  it, 
it  broke  and  gave  him  a  little  start,  but,  on  the  whole, 
he  had  little  difficulty  in  getting  down  to  Joe,  and  to- 
gether they  retraced  their  steps  to  the  valley. 

"  Well,"  said  Joe,  "  I  reckon  you  had  quite  a  time 
finding  places  for  your  fingers.  You  cut  'em  up  con- 
siderably." 

Then  for  the  first  time  Jack  looked  at  his  hands  and 
found  that,  in  half  a  dozen  places,  his  lingers  were  lac- 
erated by  the  sharp  slate  fragments  to  which  he  had 
clung. 

The  boys  went  on  up  the  valley  and,  presently,  found 
themselves  under  the  tremendous  wall  of  its  head. 
There  was  no  water  falling  over  here  now,  but  it  was 
evident  that  in  times  past  there  had  been  a  great 
rush  of  water  at  the  very  head  of  the  valley,  for  the 
ground  was  strewn  with  water-worn  pebbles  and  fine 
gravel,  among  which  grew  grass  and  other  vegetation. 
The  valley  here  was  rather  larger  than  at  the  lake  be- 
low, and  there  was  a  wide,  level  amphitheater,  walled 
in  on  three  sides  by  the  great  cliff  and  by  mountain- 
sides that  were  almost  as  steep  as  the  cliff. 

Sitting  down  here,  the  boys  studied  the  sides  of  the 
mountains  with  the  glasses  and  soon  made  out  a  num- 
ber of  goats  lying  in  the  shade  or  feeding.  In  one 
group  there  were  fifteen  and,  on  the  side  of  the  tall 
mountain  to  the  north,  they  counted  forty-two  white 
spots,  most  of  which  they  felt  sure  were  goats,  though 
some  of  the  spots  showed  no  motion. 

It  was  the  middle  of  the  afternoon  and  they  were 
talking  of  going  back  to  camp.  Jack  was  taking  a 
last  look  with  his  glasses  at  the  goats  on  the  mountain- 
side, when,  suddenly,  Joe's  gun  sounded  immediately 


140         JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

behind  him.  Jack  dropped  his  glasses  and  reached  for 
his  gun,  asking,  "  Joe,  what  is  it  ?  " 

"  I  think  it  was  a  skunk  bear,"  said  Joe,  "  what  you 
call  wolverine.  It  just  came  up  on  top  of  that  rock 
over  there,  about  a  hundred  yards  off,  and  I  shot  at  it. 
I  knew  if  I  moved  or  spoke  to  you,  it  would  jump  down 
and  be  out  of  sight  in  a  second." 

"  Did  you  get  it  ?  "  said  Jack. 

"  I  don't  know,"  was  the  reply.  "  Let's  go  up  there 
and  see.  If  I  didn't  hit  it,  we'll  never  see  it  again. 
TheSe  rocks  are  full  of  holes  and  hiding  places,  and  if 
it's  only  wounded  it  will  sure  get  away." 

They  hurried  up  to  the  rock,  which  Joe  pointed  out 
again  as  they  approached  it,  and  walking  around  on  the 
other  side  saw  a  great  splash  of  blood  on  the  stones 
below  and  a  moment  later,  behind  a  small  stone,  they 
found  a  splendid  wolverine,  kicking  in  his  last  gasp. 
The  ball  had  passed  through  both  shoulders,  making 
the  fore-legs  useless.  If  it  had  not  been  for  that  they 
would,  very  likely,  not  have  found  the  animal,  although 
its  wound  was  mortal.  Jack  shook  hands  with  Joe 
and  said,  "  That  was  a  good  shot,  Joe,  and  mighty 
lucky,  too.  This  is  a  splendid  hide.  I'd  have  given  a 
good  deal  for  such  a  chance  as  that." 

"  Well,"  said  Joe,  "  I'd  have  spoken  to  you  if  there'd 
be  any  chance  that  you  would  have  got  the  shot,  but, 
as  I  said  before,  if  the  beast  had  seen  me  move  or 
heard  me  speak,  he  would  have  dodged  out  of  sight 
and  you  wouldn't  have  seen  him  again." 

"  Nonsense,"  said  Jack,  "  there's  no  reason  why  you 
should  have  given  me  the  shot.  You  saw  him,  and  he 
was  yours  if  you  could  kill  him.  It  would  have  been 
throwing  away  the  chance,  if  you  had  tried  to  get  me 


THE    RETREAT  141 

to  see  him.  Of  course,  he  would  not  have  stayed  for 
me  to  shoot  at.  Now,  what  shall  we  do ;  skin  him  here 
or  take  him  into  camp?  " 

"  Well,"  said  Joe,  "  I'd  rather  skin  him  here,  only  I 
don't  know  much  about  skinning  a  wolverine.  I  don't 
know  whether  it  ought  to  be  cased  or  split." 

"Neither  do  I,''  said  Jack;  "  but  I  reckon  we'll  be 
safe  if  we  case  it.  Then  if  it  ought  to  be  split  we  can 
do  that  afterward,  can't  we?  " 

"  Maybe,"  said  Joe.  "  I  don't  know.  Let's  case  it, 
anyhow,  and  save  ourselves  the  trouble  of  lugging  the 
carcass  back." 

The  boys'  knives  were  sharp  and  the  skinning  did 
not  take  them  long.  It  was  an  admirable  fur,  and 
as  they  worked,  Jack  did  not  tire  of  admiring  it. 

Soon  the  job  was  completed  and  they  started  for 
camp. 

Hugh  looked  at  them  with  some  curiosity,  as  they 
approached  the  tent,  and  was  much  interested  to  see 
the  wolverine's  skin. 

"  Who  killed  it  ?  "  he  asked,  finally. 

"  Joe,"  said  Jack.  "  He  made  a  mighty  good  shot 
from  about  a  hundred  yards  off  and  broke  both  shoul- 
ders. The  animal  was  just  dying  when  we  got  up  to 
it  and  had  gone  hardly  any  distance." 

"  You  were  lucky  to  kill  it,  Joe,"  said  Hugh.  "  It 
isn't  often  one  gets  a  chance  at  one  of  these  fellows, 
and  up  here  in  the  mountains — or  for  the  matter  of 
that  anywhere  else — if  you  wound  one,  that's  the  end 
of  it.     You  can  never  find  him." 

"  We  didn't  know  how  to  skin  it,  White  Bull,"  said 
Joe,  "  and  we  didn't  want  to  pack  it  into  camp,  so, 
finally,  we  cased  it.     Ought  we  to  have  split  it?" 


142        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

"  Why,"  said  Hugh,  "  it  don't  make  much  differ- 
ence. I've  seen  plenty  of  wolverine  cased,  and  plenty 
stretched  flat.  In  old  times  they  used  to  stretch  'em 
flat,  but  I  never  heard  they  were  worth  more  one  way 
than  another.  Nice  piece  of  fur,  ain't  it?  "  he  said,  as 
he  ran  his  fingers  through  it.  "  Up  here  in  the  high 
mountains  they  haven't  begun  to  shed  yet  and  he's 
just  as  smooth  and  glossy  as  a  beaver." 

That  night,  while  they  were  sitting  around  the  fire 
after  supper,  Hugh  said,  "  Now,  boys,  I  don't  know 
whether  you've  noticed  it,  but  feed  is  getting  mighty 
short  here.  We've  only  got  a  few  head  of  horses,  but 
the  grass  is  only  just  started  and  in  about  one  day  more 
they  will  be  gnawing  up  its  roots  on  this  little  flat. 
We  didn't  find  any  feed  up  the  valley,  though  a  couple 
of  weeks  later,  when  the  snow  has  melted  and  the 
ground  has  warmed  up,  there'll  be  grass  growing  every- 
where. We  came  in  here  a  little  too  early.  None  of 
us  could  have  known  that,  because  none  of  us  have  ever 
been  up  here  before.  It  looks  to  me  as  if  it  was  a  long 
time  since  anybody  had  been  here ;  I  don't  see  any  signs 
of  camps,  or  horses,  or  chopping.  I  think  we've  got 
to  get  out  of  this  and  do  it  pretty  quick.  If  we  don't, 
our  horses  will  begin  to  get  poor." 

"That's  so,  White  Bull,"  said  Joe.  "I  noticed 
to-day  that  the  feed  was  getting  powerful  short,  and  I 
don't  know  where  we  can  go  except  down  the  valley 
toward  the  prairie,  where  the  weather  is  warm  and 
the  grass  has  started." 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  I  suppose  that's  so,  but  just 
think  how  bad  the  flies  will  be  down  there." 

"  They  will,"  said  Hugh,  "  surely.  But  we've  got 
to  stand  them  if  we're  going  to  be  in  the  mountains  for 


THE    RETREAT  143 

the  next  month.  It's  better  to  be  ate  up  by  flies  than 
to  have  the  horses  get  poor." 

"  Well,  Hugh,"  said  Jack,  "  isn't  there  any  place 
we  can  go,  up  here  in  the  high  mountains,  where  there 
will  be  feed?  We  crossed  a  big  stream  a  little  lower 
down.     How  would  it  be  up  on  the  head  of  that?  " 

"  I  don't  know,  son,"  said  Hugh.  "  You  know  just 
as  much  about  this  country  here  as  I  do.  It's  new  to 
both  of  us.  If  you  like,  we  can  take  a  day  off  to- 
morrow and  prospect  a  little  more.  If  we  could  get  up 
to  the  top  of  this  high  mountain  on  the  north  side  of 
the  valley,  we  might  be  able  to  see  something,  but,  at 
a  distance,  it's  pretty  hard  to  tell  whether  ground 
where  there  isn't  any  snow  is  covered  with  grass,  or 
weeds,  or  willows.  If  you  feel  like  it,  we  all  can  make 
a  climb  to-morrow,  and  see  if  we  can  get  up  to  the 
top  of  this  mountain  and  look  over.  If  we  do,  I  ex- 
pect we'll  find  on  the  other  side  some  valleys  and  flats, 
but  it's  mighty  doubtful  if  there  will  be  any  place  where 
there's  feed  for  the  animals.  I  think  the  best  thing 
we  can  do  is  to  go  on  back  and  maybe  camp  on  those 
high  ledges  we  passed  over  coming  up.  There's  some 
feed  there  and  then  we  can  climb  up  to  the  top  of  Goat 
Mountain  and  see  whether  from  there  we  can  see  any 
country  that  is  without  snow.  There  must  be  quite  a 
basin  in  back  of  Goat  Mountain,  where  that  big  stream 
that  we  camped  on  the  other  night  comes  out.  It 
must  be  a  cold  place  there  with  big  mountains  all 
around  it,  but  we  can  take  a  look  into  it,  and,  anyhow, 
at  our  camp  the  horses  will  be  able  to  find  something 
to  eat." 

"  I  guess  that  is  so,  White  Bull,"  said  Joe.  "  That's 
the  best  thing  to  do." 


144        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  I  suppose  it  is.  I  hate  to  leave 
here  when  there's  so  much  new  country  to  be  seen, 
but  we  can't  stay  without  feed  for  the  horses." 

Early  next  morning  the  tent  was  pulled  down  and, 
while  Hugh  cooked  the  breakfast,  the  beds  were  rolled, 
the  packs  made  up  and  the  horses  saddled.  A  little 
later,  while  Hugh  was  washing  his  dishes  and  putting 
his  kitchen  together,  ready  for  packing,  the  boys  loaded 
the  beds,  tent  and  provisions  on  two  of  the  horses  and, 
as  soon  as  the  third  was  packed,  the  train  moved  off 
down  the  valley. 

The  journey  down  stream  seemed  much  shorter  than 
the  ascent  had  been.  The  big  river  which  came  in 
from  the  north  was  passed  without  difficulty,  and  two 
or  three  hours  later  all  the  snow  had  been  left  behind, 
and  they  were  traveling  in  the  warm  sun,  over  the 
grassy  ledges  of  Goat  Mountain.  Here,  on  a  level 
spot,  camp  was  made,  several  of  the  horses  staked  out 
in  a  place  where  they  could  not  get  cast  on  the  hillside, 
and  Joe  and  Jack  set  out  to  try  to  reach  the  crest  of  the 
mountain. 

It  was  a  long,  hard  climb,  breasting  the  steep  shale 
slopes  and  then  clambering  up  narrow  ravines  worn  by 
water  falling  for  ages  down  the  red  cliffs.  The  boys 
moved  along  slowly,  for  neither  was  in  good  condition 
for  mountain-climbing,  yet  their  progress  was  steady, 
for  though  they  frequently  stopped  to  catch  their 
breath,  these  pauses  were  not  long.  At  last  they 
reached  the  mountain's  crest  and,  standing  upon  it, 
looked  over  into  the  valley. 

A  few  stunted  wind-swept  pines  crowned  the  ridge 
and  under  them  the  snow  lay  deep,  while  on  the  north 
fall  of  the  ridge,  the  white  slope,  dotted  here  and  there 


THE    RETREAT  145 

with  black  pines  or  broken  by  projecting  rock  points, 
stretched  down  into  the  basin,  in  which  rose  the  stream 
on  which  they  had  camped  a  few  nights  before. 

The  basin  looked  dreary,  cold  and  lifeless.  No  bare 
ground  was  to  be  seen,  only  the  snow,  now  and  then 
broken  by  the  fresh  tracks  of  goats  which  seemed  to 
have  been  crossing  the  slope. 

Jack  and  Joe  followed  the  crest  of  the  ridge  for 
some  distance,  and  then  turned  down  the  hill  toward 
camp,  walking  among  the  scattered,  stunted  pines,  over 
the  steeply  inclined  slide  rock.  Gradually  they  worked 
down  the  hill,  but,  at  length,  Joe  made  a  little  sign, 
at  which  Jack  stopped  and  looked  in  the  direction  in 
which  Joe  was  pointing.  Sure  enough,  there,  a  long 
way  off,  was  a  white  spot  lying  at  the  foot  of  one  of  the 
red  cliffs,  and  the  glasses  showed  it  to  be  a  goat. 

The  boys  set  out  to  stalk  it,  passing  very  carefully 
from  tree  to  tree,  until,  at  length,  a  point  of  rock  hid 
the  animal  from  sight.  Then  they  hurried  forward, 
but  when  they  peered  carefully  over  the  last  point  of 
rocks,  behind  which  the  goat  should  have  been,  they 
could  not  see  it.  It  did  not  seem  possible  that  they 
could  have  frightened  it.  The  wind  was  right,  and 
while  they  had  been  within  sight,  the  animal  had  made 
no  movement. 

After  a  little  looking  over  the  ground,  they  decided 
that  they  had  mistaken  the  place  which  they  were  now 
looking  at  for  the  one  where  the  goat  had  been,  and 
that  the  right  place  must  be  beyond  one  of  two  points 
just  before  them. 

On  rounding  the  first  of  these,  they  saw  no  signs 
of  the  animal,  but  on  looking  beyond  the  second,  there 
was  the  goat,  on  the  little  shelf,  where  he  had  first  been 


146        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

seen.  He  was  just  a  fair  rifle  shot  from  them,  and 
Jack  drew  back,  telling  Joe  to  go  ahead  and  take  a  shot. 
Jack  had  killed  a  number  of  goats,  but  Joe  had  still 
his  first  to  shoot  at. 

The  Indian  boy  crept  forward  and,  resting  his  gun 
against  a  rock,  took  careful  aim  and  fired.  The  goat 
sprang  to  its  feet  and,  as  it  rushed  across  the  narrow 
shelf  where  it  had  been  lying,  the  boys  could  see  its 
fore-leg  swinging  as  if  it  had  been  broken  high  up. 
The  animal  had  been  lying  a  little  quartering  toward 
the  gun,  and  the  ball  that  had  broken  its  shoulder 
must  have  passed  through  the  heart  or  lungs.  The 
goat  ran  to  the  edge  of  the  shelf,  as  if  to  leap  off, 
but  the  plunge  of  sixty  feet  was  too  much  for  it.  It 
turned  and  ran  back  toward  the  crevice  down  which 
it  had  come  and  reared  against  the  rocks  as  if  to  ascend, 
but  Jack  fired  a  hasty  shot,  which  struck  the  rocks  in 
front  of  it,  and  made  it  run  back  to  the  edge  of  the 
shelf.  Just  as  it  reached  the  brink  its  knees  gave  way 
and  it  pitched  forward,  whirled  over  and  over,  struck 
a  ledge,  bounded  out  again,  and  rolled,  an  inert  mass, 
down  the  mountainside  and  out  of  sight. 

"  Hurrah,  Joe !  "  shouted  Jack,  "  you  got  him,  all 
right." 

"  Maybe  so/'  said  Joe,  "  I  don't  want  to  be  too 
sure,  for  I  have  heard  that  these  animals  are  hard  to 
kill." 

Without  waste  of  time  Joe  started  down  the  moun- 
tainside after  the  animal,  springing  from  rock  to  rock, 
almost  like  a  goat  or  sheep. 

"  Look  out,  Joe,"  called  Jack,  "  you'll  break  your 
neck." 

But  Joe  kept  on.     Where  the  goat  had  tumbled 


THE    RETREAT  147 

into  the  ravine  the  rocks  were  smeared  with  blood, 
and  fifty  or  sixty  yards  further  down,  at  the  foot  of  a 
steep  cliff,  the  animal  lay  dead. 

It  took  some  time  to  drag  the  carcass  to  a  place  con- 
venient for  working  on  it  and  to  get  it  in  shape  to  carry 
down  the  mountain.  The  sun  was  getting  low,  and 
as  they  worked  the  sky  became  overcast.  After  they 
had  partly  skinned  the  goat,  Joe  wrapped  the  hide 
around  the  shoulders  and  put  it  on  his  back,  while  Jack 
followed  with  the  hams.  They  traveled  as  fast  as 
possible,  but  it  was  dusk  before  they  reached  the  ledge 
on  which  the  camp  was  located. 

"  Well,  boys,"  said  Hugh,  who  was  sitting  by  the 
fire  and  had  supper  ready,  "  what  did  you  find  and 
what  have  you  got?  I  heard  you  shoot  a  couple  of 
times." 

"  Joe  killed  a  fat  nanny-goat,"  replied  Jack,  "  and 
we  brought  in  the  meat  and  the  hide.  The  hide,  of 
course,  doesn't  amount  to  anything,  because  there  isn't 
much  hair  on  it,  but  the  meat  ought  to  be  good." 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  we'll  try  it.  I  am  no  great 
hand  to  eat  goat  meat,  but  that  sheep  that  we  got  down 
on  the  lower  lake  is  about  all  gone  and  it's  time  we 
had  some  fresh  meat.  What  did  you  see  on  the  other 
side  of  the  mountain?  Is  there  any  feed  there?  Any 
show  at  all  for  the  stock  ?  " 

"  No,"  replied  Jack,  "  nothing  there  but  snow  and 
rocks.  A  goat  might  live  there,  but  a  horse  would 
quickly  starve." 

"  Well,  then,"  said  Hugh,  "  there's  nothing  left  for 
us  to  do  but  to  get  down  toward  the  prairie.  Maybe 
we've  got  to  go  away  from  the  hills  to  where  the  grass 
is  good  and  the  flies  won't  bother  much,  or  else,  on  a 


148        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

pinch,  we  can  go  up  Swift  Current.  There's  likely  to 
be  feed  all  the  way  up  there  until  we  get  into  the  right 
high  mountains." 

"  I've  heard  a  lot  about  Swift  Current,  Hugh,"  said 
Jack.     "  What  is  there  up  there  ?  " 

"  Why,"  Hugh  answered,  "  I  don't  rightly  know. 
I've  only  been  up  it  a  few  miles  and  hunted  in  some  of 
the  hills  there.  There's  plenty  of  game,  I  reckon; 
moose  and  elk  and  bear  and  sheep  and  goats,  and  per- 
haps a  few  deer.  It's  not  a  long  stream  and  there's 
a  good  trail  up  to  the  falls;  a  trail  that's  traveled  by 
the  Indians  every  year,  for  the  Kootenays  or  Stonies 
or  Bloods  generally  make  a  hunting  camp  there  for 
some  weeks  in  the  fall.  There  are  some  beaver  there, 
too,  I  think,  though  not  as  many  as  there  used  to  be 
before  the  Indians  took  to  trapping  them.  I  expect 
we'll  find  the  flies  pretty  bad,  but  we'll  sure  find  feed 
for  the  horses,  and  there's  some  high  mountains  that 
are  mighty  sightly." 

"Well,"  said  Jack,  "  I'd  like  to  go  up  and  look 
round,  since  we  can't  do  anything  at  the  head  of  the 
river  until  the  grass  starts,  and,  if  you  and  Joe  think 
best,  I  say  Swift  Current." 

"  Swift  Current  will  suit  me,"  assented  Joe,  and 
Hugh  added,  "  It's  a  go." 

Accordingly  the  next  morning  the  train  continued 
on  down  the  lakes,  and  about  the  middle  of  the  after- 
noon they  camped  at  the  foot  of  the  lower  lake,  just 
as  they  were  about  to  ford  the  river,  a  man  on  horse- 
back appeared  on  top  of  a  hill  behind  them.  Hugh 
happened  to  look  back  and  saw  him  signal  to  call  a 
companion  to  him  by  riding  in  a  circle,  on  the  top  of 
the  hill  where  he  could  be  seen  by  anyone  at  a  distance. 


THE    RETREAT  149 

A  little  later,  the  man  with  his  companion  rode  down 
to  the  river,  crossed  it  and  came  to  their  camp.  He 
was  a  Kootenay  Indian,  who  could  talk  some  Piegan 
and  some  Chinook,  and  it  soon  appeared  that  he  was 
camped  with  fifteen  lodges  of  his  people  under  the 
chief  Back  In  Sight,  not  far  off  on  Swift  Current 
Creek. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE  WAYS  OF  BEAVER 

The  next  morning  Hugh  and  the  boys  made  an  early 
start,  and  crossing  the  wide  flat  below  the  lake,  entered 
the  valley  of  the  Swift  Current  River.  They  passed 
close  to  the  Kootenay  camp,  where  the  women  were  at 
work  dressing  hides  and  occupied  with  other  tasks, 
while  the  children  played  among  the  lodges. 

The  valley  of  Swift  Current  is  narrow  and  flanked 
on  either  side  by  high  hills  which,  though  at  first 
rounded  and  grass-covered,  grow  steeper  and  nourish 
a  growth  of  pines  and  aspens  as  one  ascends  the  stream. 
The  trail  climbs  steeply  and,  before  long,  splendid 
snow-capped  mountain  peaks  cut  off  the  view  to  the 
southwest.  From  time  to  time  the  stream  enlarges 
into  a  series  of  lakes,  in  and  about  which  Hugh  de- 
tected much  beaver  sign.  Trees  and  bushes  had  been 
felled  and,  floating  in  the  water  or  lying  on  the  bank, 
were  many  lengths  of  aspen  and  willow  branches, 
stripped  of  their  bark  by  the  beaver. 

"  I  reckon,  son,"  said  Hugh,  as  the  three  paused  to 
look  at  these  signs,  "  that  the  Kootenays  have  trapped 
all  along  this  creek  and  have  got  out  a  good  many  of 
the  beaver.  Nevertheless,  there  are  lots  of  them  left, 
I  expect;  and  I  wouldn't  be  surprised  if  a  man  could 
make  good  wages  all  winter  trapping  right  here.  There 
are  some  marten  in  these  hills,  and  now  and  then  an 
otter  and  some  fisher.  It  wouldn't  be  a  bad  thing  to 
have  out  a  line  of  traps  here." 

150 


THE    WAYS    OF    BEAVER  151 

u  No,"  said  Jack,  "  it  wouldn't.  I  shouldn't  mind 
wintering  here  a  bit.  I  believe  there  would  be  a  lot 
of  bears  in  early  spring,  to  say  nothing  of  the  fur  that 
you  would  get  through  the  winter." 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  it's  a  pretty  good  trapping 
ground,  and  I  don't  believe  that  it's  ever  been  system- 
atically gone  over  in  winter.  A  man  could  live  pretty 
well  here,  too,  for  there's  lots  of  sheep  and  elk,  and 
some  deer  and  moose,  to  say  nothing  of  the  birds  and 
a  heap  of  fish  in  the  lakes  and  streams." 

"  I'm  afraid  I'll  never  get  a  chance  to  winter  in  this 
country,  Hugh,"  said  Jack.  "  It  seems  that  I  must 
spend  my  winters  back  East." 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  that's  right  enough,  too.  The 
day  of  the  hunter  and  the  trapper  has  gone  by  in  this 
country,  and  now  we  can  only  do  for  sport  what  we 
used  to  do  for  a  living." 

All  through  the  morning  and  until  well  after  noon, 
the  party  traveled  up  the  beautiful  valley,  constantly 
drawing  nearer  to  the  great  mountains  which  towered 
before  them. 

Early  in  the  afternoon  they  came  to  a  wide  meadow, 
bordered  by  green  timber,  through  which  ran  the  river, 
flanked  on  either  hand  by  the  towering  cliffs  of  two 
great  mountains.  Here  Hugh  decided  to  camp,  and 
before  long  the  tent  was  put  up  and  a  smoke  built 
for  the  benefit  of  horses  and  men  alike,  for  the  flies 
were  very  bad. 

After  dinner,  Jack  got  from  the  pack  some  mosquito 
netting  and,  working  for  a  short  time  with  a  needle 
and  some  thread,  and,  helped  by  Joe,  made  three  bags 
of  the  netting  wide  enough  to  slip  over  the  head  and 
come  down  to  shoulders  and  breast.     When  one  put 


152        JACK,   THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

on  his  coat  and  buttoned  it  over  the  net,  his  head  and 
neck  were  protected  from  the  mosquitoes.  This  work 
done,  Jack  put  together  his  fishing  rod  and,  drawing 
on  his  gloves,  went  over  to  the  stream  to  fish  for  trout, 
which  Hugh  said  were  plenty  in  the  river. 

Not  far  above  the  camp  was  a  considerable  fall, 
where  the  water  from  a  lake  tumbled  thirty  feet  over 
the  rocks  into  a  deep  pool  below,  in  which  Jack  was 
interested  to  see  a  great  school  of  fish.  He  drew  back 
and  made  a  number  of  casts,  but  the  fish  paid  no  at- 
tention to  his  flies,  and  after  he  had  faithfully  whipped 
the  pool  for  some  time,  he  made  up  his  mind  that  the 
fish  would  not  bite.  Lying  on  the  rocks,  with  his  face 
close  to  the  water,  he  looked  down  upon  the  hundreds 
of  them  holding  themselves  in  place,  head  against  the 
current,  apparently  without  moving  a  fin.  As  he 
studied  them,  he  made  up  his  mind  that  they  were  not 
trout,  and  his  disappointment  at  not  catching  them  was 
considerably  modified. 

While  he  was  there,  his  attention  was  attracted  by 
a  dipper  flying  across  the  water  and,  presently,  he  saw 
that  on  a  little  shelf  of  rock,  almost  directly  below  the 
falls,  the  bird  had  a  nest  formed  of  green  moss.  There 
was  a  little  hole  in  the  bundle  of  moss,  at  the  mouth 
of  which  the  bird  alighted  and  seemed  to  pass  in  food. 
No  doubt  his  mate  was  sitting  on  her  eggs,  which  a 
little  later  would  hatch  into  hungry  young,  to  satisfy 
whose  appetites  would  tax  the  efforts  of  both  parents, 
no  matter  how  hard  they  might  work. 

But  Jack  was  hungry  for  fish  and  soon  started  down 
the  stream.  At  first  it  was  so  overgrown  by  willows 
and  spruces  that  he  could  not  fish,  but  not  far  beyond 
this  the  trees  stood  farther  back  from  it  and  he  began 


THE    WAYS    OF    BEAVER  153 

to  cast.  Before  he  had  gone  far  he  had  a  rise  and 
caught  a  nice  ten-inch  trout.  Just  below  was  a  dark 
pool,  from  which  he  took  four  large  fish,  the  largest 
weighing  perhaps  two  pounds.  His  third  fish  was 
different  from  any  of  those  he  had  taken  before,  and  so 
was  the  fourth.  Instead  of  being  spotted  with  black, 
these  two  had  red  spots  on  them  and  heads  larger  and 
more  clumsy  than  the  black-spotted  trout.  They  were 
not  like  the  brook  trout  of  the  East  and  Jack  was  puz- 
zled to  know  what  they  were,  but  felt  sure  that  Hugh 
would  tell  him. 

Keeping  on  down  stream,  he  soon  had  ten  fish  strung 
on  a  willow  twig,  and  the  load  was  so  heavy  that  he 
turned  from  the  river  and,  passing  through  a  fringe  of 
timber,  found  himself  near  camp. 

Joe  was  sitting  not  far  from  the  fire  half  in  the 
smoke,  and  was  rubbing  a  lot  of  green  leaves  between 
his  palms  and  then  passing  his  hands  over  his  face, 
neck  and  arms.  Hugh,  not  so  near  the  fire,  was  smok- 
ing vigorously,  but  seemed  to  be  little  troubled  by  the 
mosquitoes.  The  horses  were  still  standing  together, 
crowded  into  the  smoke. 

"  Well,  son,"  said  Hugh,  "  that's  a  nice  string  of 
fish  you've  got.  You've  done  well.  That  ought  to 
last  us  for  a  couple  of  meals.  Did  you  find  the  fish 
plenty  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  replied  Jack,  "  there  are  lots  of  them,  and  I 
want  to  ask  you  some  questions  about  them.  In  the 
first  place  that  pool  right  under  the  falls  there  is  just 
full  of  fish,  and  yet  not  one  of  them  would  rise  to  my 
flies.  I  looked  at  them  pretty  carefully  and  I  don't 
believe  they're  trout.     Do  you  know  what  they  are?  " 

"  Peamouths,  I  reckon,"  answered  Hugh. 


i54        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

"  Peamouths  ?  "  said  Jack.  "  I  think  I've  heard 
that  name,  but  I  don't  know  what  it  means." 

"  Why,"  replied  Hugh,  "  it's  a  kind  of  a  brook  white 
fish,  I  reckon.  They're  quite  a  little  like  the  white 
fish  that  we  catch  in  the  lake  here,  and  yet  they're  dif- 
ferent, smaller,  different  in  color  and  the  mouth  is 
some  different,  too.  Some  people  call  them  stone  roll- 
ers. I  don't  know  just  why,  unless,  perhaps,  they  turn 
over  the  stones  at  the  bottom  of  the  stream  when 
they're  looking  for  food;  but  that's  just  my  guess  from 
the  name." 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  if  we  get  a  chance  I'd  like  to 
catch  one  and  see  it,  so  that  I'll  know  it  again. 

"  And  now,  Hugh,"  he  went  on,  "  what  kind  of  a 
trout  is  that?"  and  he  pointed  to  one  of  the  red- 
spotted  fish  on  his  string. 

"  That's  a  bull  trout,"  answered  Hugh. 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  there's  another  new  fish.  I 
never  heard  of  bull  trout  before,  and  I  don't  know  what 
it  is." 

"  I  don't  either,"  said  Hugh,  "  except  that  I  know 
that  it's  a  trout  that  we  have  in  these  Northern  waters 
and  that  I  never  saw  in  the  Rocky  Mountains,  south  of 
here.  I  never  saw  one  south  of  Milk  River  ridge,  I 
think." 

"  When  I  first  got  hold  of  it,"  explained  Jack,  "  I 
thought  for  a  minute  that  maybe  it  was  the  Eastern 
brook  trout,  but  it's  a  very  different  fish." 

"  They  are  mighty  good  eating,"  declared  Hugh, 
"  but  I  don't  know  that  they  are  any  better  than  the 
regular  trout,  that  fellow  with  black  spots." 

"  All  trout  are  good  enough,"  said  Jack. 

Presently  Jack  went  over  to  Joe,  who  had  finished 


THE    WAYS    OF    BEAVER  155 

his  operations  with  the  leaves,  and  asked  him  what  it 
was  that  he  had  been  doing,  and  why  he  did  not  wear 
his  net. 

"  Trying  to  keep  the  flies  off,"  said  Joe.  "  There's 
a  kind  of  a  weed  that  grows  in  the  wet  places  and  Eve 
heard  that  it's  good  medicine  against  flies,  so  I  gath- 
ered a  lot  of  the  leaves  and  rubbed  them  up  and  then 
rubbed  them  over  my  skin,  and  it  seems  to  me  that  the 
flies  don't  bother  me  as  much  now.  That  net  I  don't 
like.     I  can't  see  when  I  wear  it." 

"  That's  so,"  said  Jack.  "  It  does  seem  mighty 
warm  and  sort  of  takes  my  breath  away,  but  it  isn't 
as  bad  as  the  mosquitoes.  What's  the  weed  you've 
got?" 

Joe  showed  him  the  plant,  but  Jack  did  not  know  it. 

As  they  sat  about  the  fire  that  evening  after  supper, 
the  insects  no  longer  troubled  them,  for  it  was  very 
cold;  almost  freezing.  They  had  had  a  hearty  meal 
and  were  feeling  as  lazy  and  comfortable  as  could  be. 
Not  much  was  said,  but  once  in  a  while  some  one 
would  make  a  remark  which  required  no  reply. 

Presently  Jack  said,  "  Hugh,  Eve  been  thinking 
about  that  beaver  work  that  we  saw  down  the  creek 
to-day  and  I  want  to  ask  you  some  more  questions 
about  beaver.  You  told  me  a  great  deal  last  year, 
of  course,  but  I  still  don't  feel  that  I  know  much  about 
them.  I  suppose  I  do  know  more  than  a  good  many 
other  people,  but  I  don't  know  much.  I'd  like  to  have 
you  tell  me  something  more  about  them." 

"  That's  so,  son,  we  did  talk  a  whole  lot  about 
beaver  last  year,  when  we  were  trapping,  and,  of 
course,  you  saw  something  about  their  ways  while 
we  were  catching  them;  but  you're  dead  right,  you 


156        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

don't  know  much  about  them.  For  the  matter  of  that, 
though,  nobody  does.  I  expect  I  know  a  lot  more  than 
you,  but  I've  got  a  whole  lot  to  learn.  They're  a 
mighty  curious  animal." 

"  Well,  Hugh,"  replied  Jack,  "  of  course,  it's  hard 
to  find  out  much  about  animals  that  spend  a  good  deal 
more  than  half  their  lives  out  of  sight  and  that  one 
only  sees  now  and  then. 

"  There's  one  thing,"  he  went  on,  "  that  I  never 
thought  of  while  we  were  trapping,  but  that  I  did  think 
of  last  winter,  and  it's  puzzled  me  a  whole  lot.  There 
are  the  beavers'  houses  built  out  in  deep  water  and  yet 
there  is  a  passage  from  under  the  water  up  into  the 
house.  I  don't  understand  how  that  passage  is  made. 
Is  it  possible  that  the  beavers  build  the  house  so  care- 
fully that  a  tunnel  is  left  leading  from  the  bottom  of 
the  water  up  into  the  middle  of  the  house,  and  then 
build  about  a  room  at  ths  end  of  that  tunnel?  That 
doesn't  seem  possible,  and  if  they  do,  how  do  they  get 
the  first  sticks  to  stop  at  the  bottom  of  the  water. 
Why  don't  the  sticks  rise  up  and  float  away?  I've 
been  puzzling  my  head  over  that  for  some  months 
now,  and  have  wanted  to  ask  you  about  it.  I  thought 
it  would  be  a  long  story,  and  so  it  would  not  be  worth 
while  writing  you  about  it." 

"Well,"  said  Hugh,  "I  ought  to  have  told  you 
about  that  last  year.  I  don't  wonder  that  it  puzzled 
you.  It's  enough,  it  seems  to  me,  to  puzzle  anybody. 
But  now  suppose  I  go  ahead  and  try  to  explain  it  to 
you  the  way  I  understand  it.  Whatever  I  have  learned 
comes,  of  course,  from  what  I've  seen  a  beaver  do, 
but  more  than  anything  from  the  few  houses  that  I 
have  had  occasion  to  tear  down." 


THE    WAYS    OF    BEAVER 


r/ 


"  Well,  I  wish  you  would  explain,  Hugh,"  said 
Jack,  "  for  I  want  to  understand  about  this." 

"  Well,  now,"  Hugh  went  on,  "  let's  suppose  you've 
got  a  little  creek  coming  down  from  the  mountains 
where  no  beaver  have  ever  been,  and  a  couple  that  have 
left  some  colony  where  they  belonged  go  off  and  find 
this  little  creek,  and  think  it's  a  pretty  good  place  to 
stop.  Maybe  the  creek  is  shallow,  and,  if  it  is,  about 
the  first  thing  they  do  is  to  build  two  or  three  low  dams 
across  it,  so  as  to  give  them  deep  water  for  safety. 
Then  from  one  of  these  little  ponds  where  the  water  is 
deep,  they'll  dig  a  tunnel  off  at  right  angles  to  the 
stream,  pretty  well  under  the  ground,  about  on  a  level, 
and  when  they  get  thirty  or  forty  feet  from  the  creek 
they'll  enlarge  it  and  make  a  room,  and  there  is  where 
they'll  live  for  a  little  while.  In  the  bottom  of  the 
tunnel  there  is  water  for  quite  a  lfttle  way,  but  when 
they  have  dug  up  and  made  a  room  it's  pretty  dry  there, 
except  for  the  water  that  they  pack  in  on  their  fur. 
Maybe  they'll  stay  there  for  quite  a  while,  but  after 
a  little  while  they  dig  upward  and  come  out  to  day- 
light— on  top  of  the  ground  in  the  stream  bottom,  I 
mean. 

"  Now,  like  enough  they  go  off  and  begin  to  cut 
willows  or  cottonwood  or  aspen  and  bring  it  down 
close  to  the  hole  that  they  have  in  the  ground,  and  very 
likely  they'll  pile  sticks  over  that  hole,  possibly,  at 
first,  with  the  idea  of  hiding  it.  They  drag  down  more 
and  more  sticks  and  make  the  hole  from  the  tunnel 
bigger,  and,  presently,  they  begin  to  cut  out  the  sticks 
that  were  first  piled  on  top  of  the  hole,  so  that,  finally, 
they  have  their  nest  in  the  lower  portion  of  this  pile 
of   sticks.     Meantime,    very   likely,    they   have   been 


158        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

working,  more  or  less,  on  the  dam  on  the  creek  below 
the  house,  and  have  raised  the  water  still  more,  so  that 
perhaps  the  tunnel  is  now  full  of  water,  and  then,  in- 
stead of  using  this  tunnel  to  get  out  of,  they'll  gnaw 
a  hole  through  the  sticks  of  the  house,  making  a  pas- 
sage-way from  the  room  they  occupy  down  to  beneath 
the  surface  of  the  water.  They  still  keep  working  at 
the  dam,  raising  it  and  making  it  level,  so  that  the 
pond  gets  bigger  and  bigger  all  the  time. 

"  Perhaps  the  water  is  raised,  so  that  it  begins  to 
come  into  the  room  in  the  house  that  they  occupy ;  the 
place  is  getting  too  wet  for  them.  Then  it's  quite 
possible  that  they  will  start  down  at  the  very  edge  of 
the  water  and  gnaw  a  tunnel  upward,  in  a  slanting 
direction,  perhaps  quite  close  to  the  covering  of  the 
house,  and,  finally,  when  they  get  up  near  the  top  of 
the  house,  they'll  gnaw  out  another  room,  almost  above 
the  two  they  had  occupied  before.  All  this  time  they're 
working  at  the  dam  and  raising  the  water,  and  all  this 
time,  too,  they  are  packing  sticks  up  on  top  of  the 
house,  raising  it  higher  and  higher,  and  perhaps  bring- 
ing mud,  which  they  get  along  the  bank,  and  putting 
this  among  the  sticks  on  top  of  the  house  so  as  to  bind 
the  whole  together  and  make  it  tight  and  warm  for 
winter.  If  you  study  some  old  beaver  pond,  as  I 
have,  you  will  find  that  all  along  the  edge  of  the  pond, 
under  the  bank,  but  above  the  water,  but,  of  course, 
below  the  grass-roots,  the  beaver  have  tunneled  out 
roads  partly  hidden  by  the  overhanging  sod  and  grass. 
They  take  this  mud,  as  I  have  told  you,  and  use  it  on 
the  houses  and  on  the  dams,  and  these  hidden  ways 
under  the  bank  enable  them  to  go  quietly  from  one 
place  in  the  pond  to  another  without  ever  being  seen." 


THE    WAYS    OF    BEAVER  159 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  that  gives  me  a  whole  lot  of 
new  ideas.  I  never  thought  of  that  way  of  making  the 
passage-ways  or  the  rooms.  I  knew  that  there  must 
be  some  way,  but  what  it  was  I  couldn't  tell,  though 
I  figured  over  it  a  whole  lot." 

"  Yes,"  answered  Hugh,  "  that's  the  way  they  do 
it.  Now,  you've  never  seen  the  inside  of  a  beaver 
house,  but  I  have  told  you  how  the  floor  is  pretty  level 
and  not  very  far  above  the  water,  and  I've  told  you 
also  that  often  they  have  benches  all  around  the  room 
on  which  they  lie  when  they  are  in  the  house.  Xow, 
these  benches  are  made  in  just  the  same  way  that  the 
room  is  made,  that  is  to  say,  they  are  gnawed  out  of 
the  solid  sticks  that  the  house  is  made  of.  First,  per- 
haps, one  old  beaver  will  gnaw  out  a  kind  of  a  hollow 
in  the  wall  of  the  room,  with  a  flat  level  floor  just 
about  big  enough  for  her  to  lie  on,  and  then,  perhaps, 
her  mate  will  gnaw  out  another  place  like  this,  next  to 
her,  and  perhaps  a  place  will  be  gnawed  out  for  the 
young  ones,  so  that  all  the  beaver  that  live  in  the 
house  will  have  benches  to  rest  on,  which,  I  suppose, 
are  drier,  or,  at  all  events,  more  comfortable,  than  the 
floor  of  the  house  would  be." 

"  I  think  I  understand,  Hugh,"  said  Jack.  "  Any- 
body that  has  seen  a  beaver's  teeth,  and  the  work  that 
they  do,  the  trees  that  they  cut  down,  and  knows  the 
short  time  that  it  takes  them  to  do  this,  can  understand 
easily  enough  how  it's  perfectly  possible  for  them  to 
gnaw  their  way  through  a  lot  of  small  sticks,  such  as 
the  houses  are  made  of." 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  it's  simple  enough,  of  course, 
to  know  how  beaver  could  chew  through  anything 
made  of  wood. 


160        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

"  I've  told  you,"  he  went  on,  "  about  the  open  canals 
that  the  beaver  dig  to  get  near  where  they  are  gather- 
ing their  food,  so  as  to  get  that  food  to  their  houses  and 
so  as  to  have  refuge  in  case  an  enemy  should  get  after 
them,  but  I  don't  believe  I  thought  to  tell  you  about 
the  underground  tunnels  that  they  dig,  like  those  we've 
just  been  talking  about.  Of  course,  after  a  while,  when 
the  water  has  been  raised,  these  underground  tunnels 
are  all  covered  up.  The  beaver  no  longer  use  them 
and  they  are  very  likely  to  fall  in.  Then  if  you  are 
riding  or  wading  in  a  beaver  pond,  you  may  suddenly 
step  into  a  ditch  that  is  a  foot  and  a  half  or  two  feet 
deeper  than  the  rest  of  the  pond.  Very  likely  if  you 
are  on  horseback,  the  horse  will  fall  down.  A  beaver 
pond  or  a  beaver  meadow  is  likely  to  be  full  of  traps 
for  anyone  who  goes  through  it. 

"  There's  another  thing,"  he  continued.  "  Some- 
times, if  there  is  a  little  pond  or  lake  not  far  off  from 
a  creek  where  the  beaver  have  made  a  pond  they  will 
dig  a  channel  to  that.  They  are  more  likely  to  do  that 
if  the  water  in  the  pond  toward  which  they  are  digging 
stands  higher  than  the  water  in  their  own  pond.  They 
can  travel  through  this  channel  up  to  the  other  pond, 
and,  ^  perhaps,  there  get  a  lot  of  food  which  they  can 
float  down  through  this  channel.  I  remember  once  see- 
ing such  a  place,  where  the  channel  had  evidently  been 
used  to  float  down  the  food,  but  when  I  saw  the  place, 
the  water  was  low  in  the  creek  and  in  the  pond,  and  in 
many  places  the  channel  between  the  two  was  nearly 
dry.  At  one  point  the  beaver  had  run  up  against  a 
big  boulder  which  lay  in  the  channel  that  they  were 
digging,  and  they  had  had  to  go  around  it.  They  had 
cut  a  big  Cottonwood  stick  in  the  upper  pond,  perhaps 


THE    WAYS    OF    BEAVER  161 

eight  inches  through  and  four  or  five  feet  long,  and 
had  started  to  float  it  down  the  canal.  Then  the  water 
seemed  to  have  given  out  on  them,  and  there  was  this 
big  stick  stranded  on  the  boulder,  where,  of  course,  it 
had  to  wait  until  the  water  was  high  next  spring, 
when  it  would  be  floated  down  to  the  place  they  wanted 
to  get  it  to." 

Jack  had  been  listening  eagerly  to  this  account,  and 
when  Hugh  stopped  speaking,  said,  "  Dear  me,  Hugh, 
how  much  you  know  about  this  country  and  the  ani- 
mals that  live  in  it.  I  wonder  if  anyone  else  knows  as 
much.  I  made  a  point  this  winter  of  reading  two  or 
three  books  on  beaver  and  trying  to  find  out  every- 
thing that  I  could  about  the  animal,  but  none  of  these 
books  said  one  word  about  what  you  have  been  telling 
me;  they  just  said  that  the  beaver  built  dams  and 
houses  and  kept  talking  about  how  smart  he  was,  but 
really  they  didn't  know  anything  about  the  animal. 
They  were  just  guessing  all  the  time.  There  wasn't  a 
word  said  about  howT  the  beaver  got  into  their  houses, 
nor  how  they  made  the  passage  or  the  rooms.  They 
didn't  explain  a  bit,  and  yet,  from  the  way  they  wrote, 
you'd  suppose  they  knew  it  all." 

"  Well,"  answered  Hugh,  with  a  smile,  "  when  they 
came  to  a  place  where  they  did  not  understand  how  the 
beaver  did  anything,  I  suppose  they  didn't  have  any- 
body to  go  to  and  ask,  and  so  they  had  to  just  keep  on 
writing  and  pretending  that  it  was  all  simple  enough 
to  them,  even  if  they  didn't  explain  how  it  was  to  the 
people  that  read  the  books." 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  I  think  they're  frauds ;  regular 
frauds.  If  a  man  is  pretending  to  tell  about  anything, 
and  comes  to  a  place  where  he  doesn't  know  any  more, 


i62         JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

he  ought  to  stop  writing  there,  and  then  go  on  and 
write  about  something  that  he  does  know  about." 

"  Well,  now,"  said  Hugh,  "  ain't  you  a  little  mite 
hard  on  these  fellows  that  write  books  ?  I  expect  that 
they  don't  like  to  say  that  they  don't  know.  Of  course, 
a  man  that  don't  know  oughtn't  to  be  telling  people 
about  the  things  he  don't  know  about." 

"  No,"  said  Jack,  "  you  bet  he  oughtn't  to,  and 
that's  what  I'm  kicking  about." 

"  Well,  son,  your  kicking  may  give  you  some  satis- 
faction, but  it  won't  hurt  the  men  that  are  writing  the 
books." 

"  No,"  said  Jack,  "  I  guess  not,  but  it's  a  fraud  all 
the  same." 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  it's  about  time  for  us  to  turn 
in.  Suppose  you  boys  go  out  and  catch  two  of  the 
riding  horses  and  picket  them  strongly,  and  I  guess  the 
others  will  stay  with  them  until  morning." 

The  boys  did  this,  and  when  they  returned  to  camp 
all  hands  turned  in  for  the  night. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE     FORKS     OF     SWIFT     CURRENT 

Daylight  was  slow  in  breaking  the  next  morning,  and 
when  the  earliest  riser  came  out  of  the  tent  he  saw  that 
the  valley  was  filled  with  mist  which  hid  the  mountain 
peaks.  It  was  fairly  cold,  and  all  hands  were  glad  to 
wear  their  coats. 

Hugh  kindled  the  fire  and  began  to  get  breakfast, 
while  the  boys  went  out  and  turned  loose  the  picketed 
horses,  rinding  all  the  animals  together. 

"  Xo  mosquitoes  this  morning,  Jack,"  said  Joe,  as 
they  walked  back  to  camp. 

"  No,  indeed,"  replied  Jack.  "  Any  mosquito  that 
came  out  this  morning  would  be  likely  to  have  his 
wings  and  beak  frozen  off.  My,  but  it's  cold !  "  and  he 
crowded  close  to  the  fire,  stretching  out  his  stiff  wet 
hands  to  try  to  get  some  warmth  into  them. 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  it's  pretty  cold  up  here  in 
the  mountains.  Ten  miles  down  the  creek,  on  the 
prairie,  I  bet  the  sun  is  shining  hot." 

"  Isn't  it  queer  what  a  difference  there  is  between  the 
mountains  and  the  prairie?  "  said  Jack. 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  there's  lots  of  difference,  but 
this  place  up  here  is  the  coldest,  stormiest  country  that 
I  know  anything  about.  It  seems  to  me  that  all  these 
blizzards  that  we  hear  about  that  sweep  over  Eastern 
Montana  and  Dakota  and  so  on,  toward  the  States,  get 
their  start  right  up  here.     I've  been  right  on  top  of  the 

163 


1 64        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

mountains  along  here  where  the  weather  would  be 
warm  and  fine  as  could  be,  but  a  little  way  down  on 
the  eastern  slope  it  would  be  raining  and  blowing  like 
fury,  and  how  far  the  wind  and  storm  reached,  I  never 
could  find  out.  Of  course,  there  are  lots  of  bad  storms 
that  start  up  here  that  never  do  get  as  far  as  the  prairie, 
but  there  are  lots  of  others  that  get  such  a  start  here 
that  they  keep  going  until  they  get  a  long  way  east. 

"  Well,"  Hugh  went  on,  "  the  grub  is  about  ready 
and  we  may  as  well  sit  down  and  eat.  I  believe  this 
fog  is  going  to  lift  in  a  while  and  we  can  keep  on  up 
the  valley  and  see  how  far  we  can  go  before  the  moun- 
tains stop  us.  By  rights,  we  ought  to  wait  here  until 
the  sun  comes  out  and  dries  off  the  ropes  and  blankets, 
but  I  don't  believe  we've  got  much  further  to  go,  not 
more  than  six  or  seven  miles  anyhow,  before  we'll 
either  get  to  the  foot  of  the  mountains  or  well  up  on 
them." 

A  little  while  after  breakfast  the  fog  seemed  to 
be  growing  thin  and,  presently,  the  sun  broke 
through.  From  that  time  the  mist  gradually  disap- 
peared, but  before  it  had  wholly  vanished  from  the 
mountainsides,  the  packs  were  on  the  horses  and  the 
train  was  stringing  out  up  the  trail.  There  was  a 
short,  steep  climb  about  opposite  the  falls,  where  Jack 
had  tried  to  fish  the  day  before,  and  then  a  stretch  of 
level  land,  the  trail  passing  through  scattered  timber 
close  to  the  shores  of  a  rather  large  lake.  When  they 
had  reached  the  upper  end  of  this,  Hugh  stopped,  and, 
turning  to  Jack,  said,  "  Now,  which  way  do  you  want 
to  go?  This  valley  seems  to  have  three  forks,  one 
short  one  in  the  middle,  and  a  longer  one  on  either  side. 
The  short  one  is  right  ahead  of  us  and  the  easiest,  but 


THE   FORKS   OF    SWIFT   CURRENT    165 

the  longest  one  is  up  here,  to  the  right.  If  we  want 
to  find  out  what  there  is  here,  we  may  as  well  take 
them  in  order." 

"  Then,"  said  Jack,  "  what's  the  matter  with  taking 
the  right-hand  one  first?     What  do  you  think,  Joe?" 

Joe  signified  that  he  was  doubtful  which  to  take, 
and  as  he,  apparently,  didn't  care  much,  Hugh  said, 
"  Well,  come  on  then,  we'll  see  if  we  can  find  some  sort 
of  a  trail  through  the  timber  up  here  to  the  right." 

A  dim  trail,  which  seemed  to  Jack  like  a  disused 
game  trail,  led  through  the  timber  and  the  road  was 
fairly  easy.  Before  they  had  gone  far,  both  boys 
could  see  that  people  had  traveled  up  it  in  previous 
years,  for  in  a  number  of  places  the  bark  was  knocked 
from  the  trees,  where  packs  had  hit  against  them  and, 
in  one  or  two  places,  they  saw  a  thread  of  red  or  white 
worsted  clinging  to  a  tree  in  a  narrow  place  in  the 
trail,  showing  where  a  rider's  leg  had  rubbed  against 
the  bark  and  a  shred  had  been  torn  from  his  leggings 
or  blanket.  Once  or  twice  they  saw  a  tuft  of  goat  hair 
caught  on  a  branch. 

For  some  hours  they  wound  through  the  forest, 
but  at  length  the  trees  grew  smaller  and  they  passed 
through  some  open  timber  into  a  little  park. 

The  mountains  rose  high  on  every  side,  but  there 
was  plenty  of  grass,  a  good-sized  stream,  and  abundant 
wood.  At  the  head  of  the  park,  two  streams  came 
from  narrow  valleys,  one  to  the  west  and  one  to  the 
east,  and  immediately  before  the  travelers  rose  a  very 
sharp  mountain  slope,  terminating  in  a  long  high  wall 
or  precipice  crowned  by  jagged  finger-like  rocks. 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  as  they  got  to  the  upper  end  of 
the  park,  "  I  reckon  we've  got  to  stop  here.     Of  course, 


1 66        JACK,   THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

it  may  be  that  we  could  take  the  horses  higher  up,  but 
I  don't  feel  any  way  sure  about  it  and,  if  we  should 
take  them,  we'd  probably  find  the  ground  covered  with 
snow.  Let's  make  camp,  and  tie  up  the  pack  horses, 
and  then  we'll  ride  farther  on  and  see  what  there  is. 
It  looks  to  me  like  there  ought  to  be  lots  of  sheep  and 
goats  up  here,  and  we  may  as  well  find  out." 

It  was  nearly  noon  before  the  packs  were  off  and  the 
tent  up,  and  then  it  was  time  to  cook  and  eat,  so  that 
it  was  one  o'clock  before  they  mounted  again  and  rode 
off.  Hugh  followed  the  westerly  branch  of  the  stream 
and,  after  a  little  search,  found  a  game  trail  which  led 
up  the  steep  bank  and  brought  them  to  the  level  of  the 
valley,  above  the  forty-foot  precipice  over  which  the 
stream  poured.  Here  the  ground  was  level  and  tim- 
ber-covered, but  they  soon  came  out  on  rolling  land 
which  rose  steadily  toward  the  mountain  and  was 
dotted  with  clumps  of  trees. 

The  stream,  which  they  had  been  following,  came 
from  a  beautiful  lake  of  clear,  green  water,  in  which 
two  or  three  harlequin  ducks  were  swimming,  among 
little  fragments  of  ice  floating  in  the  water. 

The  three  travelers  dismounted  and,  sitting  down 
beneath  a  pine  tree,  looked  over  the  lake  and  scanned 
the  rocks  above  it. 

Presently  Hugh  said,  "  Boys,  do  you  want  to  see 
some  goats  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  replied  Jack,  "  I've  been  looking  for  them, 
but  I  don't  see  any." 

"Well,"  said  Hugh,  "I'll  tell  you  why.  You're 
looking  too  high  up  in  the  air.  Look  down  here  in 
the  valley,  just  below  the  edge  of  the  snow,  and  see 
what  you  can  see." 


THE   FORKS   OF    SWIFT   CURRENT    167 

The  boys  looked,  and  there,  to  their  astonishment, 
saw  several  herds  of  goats  feeding  on  the  young  grass 
that  grew  on  the  slopes  of  the  mountains. 

"  Plenty  of  goats,"  said  Joe. 

"  You  bet,  they're  plenty,"  agreed  Jack.  "  Let's 
count  them."  They  did  so  and  found  that  there  were 
no  less  than  forty-three  goats  in  sight  and  none  of  them 
at  a  level  higher  than  they  were. 

"  Quite  a  show,  isn't  it?"  said  Hugh.  "I  don't 
remember  that  I  ever  saw  so  many  goats  at  one  view, 
as  we're  looking  at  now.  It  wouldn't  be  much  of  a 
trick  to  get  goat  meat  here,  if  we  wanted  it." 

"  Xo,"  answered  Jack,  "  I  should  think  not,  but,  as 
you  say,  we  don't  want  it  particularly.  I'd  rather 
have  some  sheep  or  even  an  elk.  I  expect  there  are 
some  elk  here,  aren't  there?  I  saw  some  sign  of  them, 
as  I  thought,  coming  up." 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "I  reckon  there  are  elk  here; 
not  very  many,  but  some.  Maybe  we  can  get  to  kill 
one  before  long." 

It  was  pleasant  sitting  there  in  the  sun  and  watching 
the  feeding  goats,  unsuspicious  of  danger.  Sud- 
denly, however,  there  was  a  movement  in  the  group 
nearest  the  head  of  the  valley  and  the  animals  began 
to  walk  quickly  toward  the  heights  and  were  soon 
climbing  up  over  the  snowbanks. 

"  There !  "  exclaimed  Hugh,  "  I  reckon  some  eddy 
of  wind  from  us  must  have  crept  around  and  they  have 
smelt  us.     Just  see  how  they  climb." 

"  Yes,"  said  Jack,  "  and  look  at  that  little  kid  fol- 
lowing its  mother.  It  can't  go  very  fast  and  see  how 
she  stops  and  turns,  and  looks,  and  waits  for  it.  That's 
mighty  pretty,  I  think." 


168        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

"  Yes,"  said  Joe,  "  that's  nice.  That's  the  way  the 
old  ones  always  do  unless  they're  too  badly  scared. 
There,  you  see  the  little  one  has  caught  up,  and  now  the 
mother  goes  on  again." 

The  disturbance  among  the  first  group  of  goats  had 
started  the  others  along  the  mountainside,  and  now 
all  were  clambering  toward  the  high  rocks.  The  men 
watched  them,  until  they  had  passed  over  the  snow- 
banks and  reached  the  precipice,  along  which  they  ran, 
like  flies  on  a  wall,  though  of  course  the  boys  knew 
that  there  must  be  shelves  wide  enough  for  them  to 
walk  on.  Soon,  however,  the  sun  sank  behind  the  tow- 
ering peak  to  the  westward  and  the  air  grew  chilly, 
and  remounting  their  horses  the  travelers  returned  to 
camp. 

"  No  mosquitoes  to-night,  Hugh,"  said  Jack. 

"  No,"  answered  Hugh,  "  I  guess  we're  safe." 

"  White  Bull,"  said  Joe,  as  they  were  sitting  before 
the  fire,  "  have  you  ever  been  up  here  before  ?  " 

"  No,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  never  have  and  I  never  heard 
of  anybody  else  that  has  been  up  here.  Of  course,  we 
know  that  the  Kootenays  and  Stonies  come  up  here  and 
sometimes  maybe  a  little  party  of  hunting  Crees,  but 
no  white  men,  as  far  as  I  ever  heard.  Along  back, 
fifteen  or  twenty  years  ago,  there  was  a  party  of  white 
men  camped  below  here,  on  Kennedy's  Creek.  They 
were  looking  for  gold.  They  found  a  few  colors,  but 
nothing  that  paid  at  all  and,  after  a  little  while,  they 
gave  up  looking  for  gold,  and  broke  up  into  little 
parties,  some  of  them  going  back  to  Benton  and  some 
hunting  along  the  flanks  of  the  mountains,  but  I  don't 
believe  they  or  any  other  party  of  white  men.  have  ever 
been  up  here  before." 


THE   FORKS   OF    SWIFT   CURRENT    169 

"  Well,"  said  Joe,  "  then,  of  course,  you  don't  know 
what  there  is  up  this  other  creek  that  comes  from  the 
east." 

"  No,  I  don't,"  said  Hugh.  "  It  can't  be  very  long, 
because  Kennedy's  Creek  must  be  pretty  close  to  us, 
on  the  other  side  of  the  mountains." 

"  Say,  Jack,"  said  Joe.  "  Let's  take  our  guns  and 
go  up  this  creek  afoot  to-morrow,  and  see  what  there 
is  there.  YVe  might  see  some  game  and,  anyhow,  we'll 
find  out  where  the  stream  comes  from.  What  do  you 
think.  White  Bull,  is  it  good?" 

"  Good,"  said  Hugh,  "  go  on  up  there  and  see  what 
you  can  find.  I  think  maybe  I'll  stop  around  the 
camp  or  perhaps  climb  up  to  the  top  of  these  rocks  right 
in  front  of  us,  and  see  what  stream  it  is  that  is  on  the 
other  side.  It  looks  like  a  pretty  straight  up  and 
down  wall  in  front  of  us,  but,  often,  when  you  get  close 
to  a  place  like  that  you  find  that  you  can  climb  it." 

"  What  do  you  expect  to  see  on  the  other  side, 
Hugh  ?  "  asked  Jack. 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  Hugh,  "  but  I  reckon  I'll  see 
more  mountains.  Those  seem  to  be  mostly  what 
grows  in  this  part  of  the  world,  but  I  shouldn't  be 
much  surprised  if  right  on  the  other  side  of  that  wall 
I  saw  a  narrow  valley,  through  which  runs  one  of  the 
forks  of  Belly  River." 

"  Won't  you  find  lots  of  snow  going  up  there, 
Hugh?"  said  Jack. 

"  Some,  I  guess,"  was  the  reply,  "  but  you  see  this  is 
the  south  face  of  the  wall  and  the  sun  is  pretty  strong 
now  and  hits  the  rocks  up  there,  so  that  I  reckon  most 
of  the  snow  will  be  melted." 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  that  will  be  bully.     We  will 


170        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

send  out  two  exploring  parties  from  the  camp,  and  then 
at  night  both  will  report." 

It  was  long  after  daylight  the  next  morning  when 
Jack  and  Joe  set  out,  but  the  mountains  on  either  side 
of  the  little  valley  were  so  high  that  the  sun  had  not 
yet  melted  the  frost  on  the  grass.  The  first  mile  of 
their  journey  was  spent  in  clambering  up  a  series  of 
moss-covered  ledges,  very  steep,  but  not  at  all  difficult 
to  climb.  Then  they  found  themselves  at  the  bottom 
of  a  talus,  a  sharp  slope  of  rock  fragments,  that  had 
fallen  from  the  cliffs  above,  and  they  followed  this 
around  point  after  point,  until  the  narrow  valley  of 
the  stream  opened  before  them. 

This  valley  was  nearly  straight  and  only  three  or 
four  miles  in  length,  walled  in  on  the  west  and  north 
by  a  vertical  precipice,  not  very  high,  but  terminating 
in  the  same  jagged  rock  pinnacles  that  crowned  the 
wall  to  the  north  of  the  camp,  and  beyond  which  Hugh 
thought  he  might  see  the  valley  of  Belly  River. 
There  was  no  timber  growing  at  the  foot  of  this  rock 
wall  nor  on  the  steep  mountainside  that  lay  to  the 
east,  but  at  one  time  the  actual  valley  where  the  stream 
ran  and  where  grass  and  underbrush  now  grew,  had 
supported  a  growth  of  large  timber.  All  these  trees, 
however,  had  been  broken  off  twelve  or  fifteen  feet 
above  the  ground  and  their  trunks  lay  piled  one  upon 
another  among  the  growing  vegetation  like  a  great 
heap  of  giant  jack-straws. 

"  Now,  what  do  you  suppose  broke  off  all  those 
trees  at  just  that  height,  Joe?  "  asked  Jack. 

Joe  looked  for  a  long  time  before  he  answered,  and 
then  he  said,  "  Snowslide,  I  reckon." 

"  By  Jove,"    said  Jack,    "  that's   what   it   is,    sure 


THE   FORKS   OF    SWIFT    CURRENT    171 

enough.  You  can  see  the  track  of  it  coming  down 
that  mountainside,  can't  you?  What  an  immense 
mass  of  snow  it  must  have  been,  and  what  a  force  it 
must  have  had  to  break  off  those  great,  thick  trees. 
Some  of  them  look  eighteen  inches  through.  I  won- 
der how  long  ago  it  took  place." 

"  Yes,"  said  Joe,  "  it  sure  must  have  come  down 
fast  and  hit  those  trees  hard,  and  when  it  got  down 
here  into  the  valley,  it  must  have  just  piled  up.  It 
couldn't  get  out  anywhere,  for  big  and  swift  as  it  was, 
it  could  not  knock  down  this  wall." 

All  along  the  mountainside  opposite  to  them  were 
to  be  seen  places  where  deep  and  wide  grooves  had  been 
cut  in  the  soil  and,  as  they  looked  more  closely,  they 
could  see  the  stumps  of  many  trees  that  had  been  cut 
down  by  the  slide. 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  that  certainly  was  a  big  ava- 
lanche." 

"Avalanche,"  said  Joe,  "what's  that?" 

"  Why,"  said  Jack,  "  it's  just  another  name  for 
snowslide.  That's  what  they  call  a  snowslide  in  Switz- 
erland, I  believe.  A  man  once  wrote  a  piece  of  poetry 
about  a  fellow  that  was  climbing  the  mountains  in 
Switzerland,  and  one  of  the  people  that  he  passed  said 
to  him,  '  Beware,  the  awful  avalanche.'  That  meant 
watch  out  close  for  snowslides." 

"  Well,"  said  Joe,  "  I've  never  been  much  in  the 
mountains  and  I've  never  seen  a  snowslide,  but  I  have 
heard  old  people  talk  about  them,  and  from  what  they 
say,  they  are  things  to  be  scared  of." 

Presently,  the  boys  set  out  toward  the  head  of  the 
valley,  following  the  lower  border  of  the  talus,  where 
the  walking  was  fairly  easy.    They  hardly  expected  to 


172         JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

see  any  game,  yet  both  kept  their  eyes  open  for  any- 
thing that  might  turn  up.  Presently,  immediately  in 
front  of  them  were  seen  tracks  where  animals  had 
been  running  back  and  forth,  and  a  little  examination 
showed  that  a  small  band  of  mountain  sheep  had  come 
down  from  the  rocks  and  had  been  playing  about,  no 
longer  ago  than  this  morning. 

*'  If  we'd  been  a  little  earlier,  Joe,"  said  Jack,  "  we 
might  have  got  a  shot  at  those  fellows." 

"  We  may  do  it  yet,"  replied  Joe,  "  and  if  we  don't 
do  it  to-day,  perhaps  we  can  find  them  to-morrow. 
Very  likely  they  live  right  here  somewhere,  and  I  don't 
believe  they're  a  bit  scary,  so  that  if  we  look  for  them 
carefully  we  may  be  able  to  get  a  shot." 

They  could  see  where  the  sheep  had  come  down  to 
the  edge  of  the  valley,  perhaps  to  get  a  bite  of  green 
grass,  perhaps  to  drink,  though  probably  not  for 
water,  since  the  melting  snow  all  over  the  hillsides 
would  have  given  them  many  drinking  places. 

They  kept  on  slowly  up  the  valley,  stopping  often 
to  look  about  and,  more  than  once,  sitting  down  and 
scanning  the  rocks  about,  beyond  them,  and  across 
the  valley  for  game.  By  this  time  the  sun  had  climbed 
over  the  mountains  and  was  shining  down  into  the  val- 
ley with  a  pleasant  warmth  and,  with  the  rising  sun, 
rose  swarms  of  mosquitoes,  which  bothered  the  boys 
not  a  little.  As  they  were  walking  along,  Jack  slightly 
in  the  lead,  a  brown  and  white  bird  suddenly  rose  from 
the  ground,  almost  at  his  feet,  and  then  fell  again, 
and  tumbling  over  and  over,  fluttered  off  for  a  little 
way,  as  if  desperately  hurt,  and  then  lay  on  the 
ground,  with  outspread,  quivering  wings,  and  open 
beak,  as  if  unable  to  go  further. 


THE   FORKS   OF    SWIFT   CURRENT    173 

"  Ah,"  said  Jack,  "  there's  a  ptarmigan,  and  there 
must  be  a  nest  right  here'" 

Sure  enough,  a  few  minutes'  search  revealed  a  nest 
just  in  front  of  Jack.  It  was  a  mere  hollow  scratched 
in  the  ground  and  had  no  lining,  except  a  few  blades 
of  grass,  and  two  or  three  feathers  that  had  .dropped 
from  the  bird's  breast.  In  the  nest  were  six  beautiful 
eggs  almost  covered  with  purplish  spots,  mottlings 
and  cloudings,  and  so  nearly  the  color  of  many  of  the 
stones  that  lay  on  the  slope  that  Jack's  eve  had  passed 
over  them  two  or  three  times  without  seeing  that  they 
were  eggs  and  not  stones. 

"  Oh,  aren't  they  pretty!  "  said  Jack.  "  Wouldn't  I 
.like  to  have  them  safely  back  East  and  a  picture  of  the 
place  where  we  found  them,  and  of  the  mother  bird." 

By  this  time  the  mother  had  risen  from  the  ground 
where  she  lay  and  had  walked  back,  close  to  the  boys, 
and,  with  bristling  feathers  and  angry  duckings, 
stalked  so  close  to  them  that  they  could  have  touched 
her  with  their  outstretched  hands. 

"  Certainly,  that's  one  of  the  prettiest  things  I  ever 
saw,"  said  Jack,  4l  and  I'm  mighty  glad  to  have  seen 
the  eggs  because  I've  seen  the  young  ones.  Don't  you 
remember,  Joe,  the  little  one  that  we  caught  three  or 
four  years  ago,  the  first  time  that  you  and  I  ever 
hunted  together  on  the  mountains?" 

"  Sure,"  said  Joe,  "  I  remember.  That  was  the 
time  we  got  the  sheep,  just  before  we  went  off  to 
Grassy  Lakes,  where  you  counted  your  coup  on  the 
Assinaboine." 

"  Yes,"  said  Jack,  "  that  was  the  time.  I  tell  you, 
Joe,  you  and  I  have  had  some  pretty  good  times  to- 
gether, haven't  we?  " 


174        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

"  You  bet,"  replied  Joe,  "  and  two  or  three  times  I've 
been  pretty  badly  scared  when  I've  been  with  you,  but 
we  always  came  out  all  right." 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  I've  been  scared,  too,  but  I 
suppose  we  didn't  either  of  us  show  it." 

"  No,"  answered  Joe,  "  I  suppose  we  didn't.  I  hope 
not,  anyhow.  I  don't  mind  being  scared,  if  I  can 
only  keep  it  to  myself,  but  I  don't  like  to  have  people 
laugh  at  me. 

"  Well,"  he  went  on,  "  let's  go  ahead,  and  leave  this 
old  mother  to  get  on  her  eggs  again." 

The  boys  kept  on  towards  the  head  of  the  valley 
and  at  last  could  see  that  the  stream  that  they  had 
been  following  had  its  origin  in  a  tiny,  deep,  green 
lake,  lying  at  the  very  head  of  the  valley  and  close 
under  the  rock  wall  and  the  high  mountains  to  the 
east.  When  they  reached  this  lake,  Jack  said,  "  What 
do  you  say,  Joe?  Shall  we  cross  over  and  try  to  get 
down  to  camp  on  the  other  side  of  the  valley  ?  I  don't 
know  whether  we  can  find  good  walking  there  or  not, 
but  I  guess  we  can,  and  I'd  like  to  go  over  new  ground 
if  I  could." 

"  I  say  let's  try  it,"  replied  Joe.  "  If  we  find  we 
can't  get  down  that  way,  we  can  come  back  and  go 
home  the  way  we  came." 

"  Come  on  then,"  said  Jack,  and  the  two  started 
across  the  valley,  walking  on  the  beach  of  the  little 
lake.  The  outlet  was  very  narrow,  and  the  boys 
jumped  across  it  and  then  set  out  directly  toward  the 
mountainside.  The  going  was  not  good,  for  the  soil 
was  full  of  water  and  overgrown  by  thick  moss,  above 
which  stood  a  tangle  of  small  shrubs  and  underbrush. 
However,  the  distance  was  not  great,  and  before  long 


THE   FORKS   OF    SWIFT    CURRENT    175 

they  had  made  their  way  over  to  the  mountainside,  and 
there  found  a  talus  of  slide-rock,  much  like  that  along 
which  they  passed  on  the  other  side.  Here  the  walk- 
ing was  not  as  good  as  on  the  other  side  of  the  stream, 
because  springs  and  trickles  of  water  were  constantly 
coming  down  from  the  mountainside. 

A  couple  of  miles  this  side  of  camp  the  slope  of 
the  mountain  grew  easier  and  scattered  trees  began 
to  clothe  its  side.  They  crossed  a  long,  low  point  of 
timber  and  from  here  there  was  a  gentle  descent  toward 
camp,  through  a  dry  open  forest.  They  were  almost 
within  sight  of  camp  when  Jack  heard  a  sound, 
stopped,  and  raised  his  gun,  and  then  a  stick  cracked 
in  the  timber  not  far  off.  Jack  threw  his  gun  to  his 
shoulder  and  fired,  and  in  a  moment  the  timber  be- 
fore them  seemed  filled  with  animals,  which  disap- 
peared almost  at  once,  and  the  noise  of  their  footsteps 
and  of  the  sticks  which  they  broke  in  their  flight,  grew 
fainter  and  fainter. 

The  boys  had  glimpses  of  elk  running  in  all  direc- 
tions, but  had  no  chance  to  shoot  again. 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  I  don't  know  very  certainly 
what  I  shot  at,  but  I  think  it  was  a  young  bull  elk. 
Let's  go  over  and  see  if  we  can  find  anything." 

Stepping  briskly  forward,  the  boys  were  soon  near 
the  point  where  the  animal  had  stood  at  which  Jack 
fired.  After  looking  about  for  a  moment  or  two,  Joe 
said,  "  You  hit  him ;  "  and  pointed  to  a  dark  spot  on 
a  weathered  tree  trunk,  which  Jack  could  see  was  blood. 

The  boys  circled  about,  looking  carefully  at  the 
ground,  the  trunks  of  the  trees,  and  the  leaves  of 
the  low-growing  plants,  and  presently  Jack  saw  that 
Joe  had  found  the  trail,  which  he  was  following,  slowly 


176        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

at  first,  because  the  sign  was  hard  to  see,  and  then  more 
rapidly. 

Jack  walked  after  him  and  together  they  followed 
the  trail  which  led  down  toward  the  camp.  The  sign 
was,  at  first,  slight,  but  after  they  had  gone  some  dis- 
tance they  could  see  a  good  deal  of  blood  on  the  ground 
on  both  sides  of  the  tracks,  and  from  this  Joe  declared 
that  the  animal  was  hit  in  the  lungs  and  would  not  go 
far.  He  was  right;  a  hundred  yards  further  on  the 
graceful  form  of  a  young  bull  elk  was  stretched  on 
the  ground.  It  was  a  yearling,  of  course  with  its 
horns  in  the  velvet  and  as  yet  quite  soft. 

The  boys  dressed  the  animal  and  then,  walking 
down  to  the  camp,  caught  and  saddled  a  pack  horse 
and,  bringing  it  up  into  the  timber,  quartered  the  elk, 
packed  it  on  the  horse  and  returned  to  camp,  where 
they  unloaded  their  meat  at  the  foot  of  a  tree  and, 
getting  a  couple  of  sling  ropes,  managed  with  some 
labor  to  haul  the  quarters  into  the  branches  well  above 
the  ground. 

"  Now,"  said  Joe,  "  when  White  Bull  comes  in  we'll 
see  what  he  says  and,  if  he  thinks  best,  we'll  cut  out 
and  dry  a  lot  of  that  elk  meat,  and  take  it  along  with 
us.  We  can't  be  sure  at  this  time  of  the  year,  that 
we're  going  to  kill  something  every  day." 

All  through  the  afternoon  they  lounged  about  the 
fire,  and  the  sun  was  still  two  or  three  hours  high  when 
Jack,  who  for  some  time  had  been  watching  the  moun- 
tainsides to  the  north,  saw  Hugh  coming  down  the 
slope  a  long  way  of!  toward  the  camp. 

"  Hurrah,  Joe !  "  said  Jack,  "  there's  Hugh.  Pretty 
soon  we'll  find  out  what  he's  seen  and  tell  him  what 
we  have  done." 


THE   FORKS   OF    SWIFT   CURRENT    177 

A  little  later  Hugh  reached  the  camp  and,  after  put- 
ting his  rifle  inside  the  tent,  said,  "  Well,  boys,  I  see 
you've  got  some  fresh  meat,  and  I'm  mighty  glad  of  it. 
I've  had  quite  a  walk  and  am  feeling  pretty  wolfish. 
Let's  get  supper  and  then,  after  we've  eaten,  we'll  have 
a  whole  lot  of  time  to  talk." 


CHAPTER  XIV 

A  LYNX  VISITS   CAMP 

"  Well,  son,"  said  Hugh,  as  the  two  pulled  on  their 
shoes  in  the  gray  light  of  the  next  morning,  "  I  slept 
mighty  well  last  night  and  I  reckon  your  conscience 
didn't  trouble  you  much,  did  it?  " 

"  No,"  said  Jack,  "  I  didn't  know  what  was  going 
on  two  minutes  after  I  rolled  my  blanket  about  me." 

"  It's  mighty  dark  this  morning,"  said  Hugh. 
"  Either  we  got  up  early,  or  else  there's  a  big  fog ;"  and 
when  they  put  their  heads  out  of  the  tent,  sure  enough, 
the  mountains  were  covered  with  mist  and  a  few  flakes 
of  snow  were  falling. 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  it's  no  time  to  climb  the 
mountains  to-day,  unless  the  weather  clears,  and  it 
seems  to  me  that  it's  mighty  cold.  Maybe  we're  going 
to  get  snowed  in  here." 

"  That  wouldn't  be  very  nice,"  said  Jack.  "  I  hope 
we  won't  have  a  big  snowstorm." 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  you  boys  go  out  and  look  after 
the  horses.  We've  got  to  keep  our  eyes  on  them;  it 
would  be  pretty  bad  to  be  left  afoot  and,  if  it  does  snow, 
the  horses  will  be  wanting  to  get  down  to  the  prairie 
again." 

The  boys  went  and  did  as  they  were  told,  and 
changed  the  two  horses  that  were  picketed  to  fresh 
grass,  saw  that  the  others  were  all  near  at  hand,  and 
then  returned  to  the  fire. 

1*8 


A   LYNX    VISITS    CAMP  179 

Meanwhile,  the  snow  began  to  fall  more  and  more 
thickly  and,  after  breakfast,  Hugh  said,  "  Now,  boys, 
I  believe  we're  going  to  have  a  real  snowstorm.  Let's 
get  these  ropes,  blankets  and  saddles  covered  up  as 
well  as  we  can,  and  then  we'll  go  down  to  the  point 
where  we  came  out  of  the  timber  and  build  some  sort 
of  a  fence  there,  so  as  to  keep  the  horses  from  going 
back  to  the  prairie.  We'll  have  to  picket  them  all 
to-day  and  they're  not  likely  to  pull  up  their  pins,  but 
we'll  make  it  as  hard  for  them  to  get  away  as  we 
can." 

The  riding  saddles  and  pack  riggings  were  soon 
piled  under  a  tree,  where  they  would  be  protected  from 
the  snow  and  covered  with  blankets  and  mantas,  and 
then  Hugh  began  to  cut  and  sharpen  a  number  of  pins, 
while  the  boys  collected  lash  ropes  and  lariats  enough 
to  tie  all  the  horses.  After  the  animals  had  been  se- 
curely picketed,  the  three  men  went  down  to  the  end  of 
the  valley  and,  after  Hugh  had  cut  some  tall,  but 
slender,  dead  pine  and  spruce  trees,  the  boys  dragged 
them  out  of  the  timber  and  made  a  fence,  which  suffi- 
ciently barricaded  the  trail  and  one  or  two  open  places, 
where  the  horses  might  have  gone  into  the  forest. 

By  this  time  the  light  snow  was  two  or  three  inches 
deep  and,  when  they  returned  to  camp,  they  found 
that  all  the  horses  were  busily  at  work  pawing  away 
the  snow,  in  order  to  get  at  the  grass  beneath  it. 

"  There,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  guess  they're  all  right, 
and  this  thing  is  just  a  flurry.  As  soon  as  the  sun 
comes  out  again,  this  snow  will  all  melt." 

Joe  went  into  the  tent,  and  covering  himself  with  his 
blankets,  went  to  sleep,  but  Jack  wanted  to  be  doing 
something,  yet  there  was  not  much  that  he  could  do, 


i8o        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

unless  he  went  out  to  hunt,  and,  as  all  the  foliage 
was  covered  with  snow,  he  could  not  hunt  without  also 
getting  wet. 

Now  and  then  he  would  walk  out  and  look  at  the 
horses,  which  could  not  be  seen  from  the  camp.  They 
were  all  standing  with  their  tails  to  the  storm,  each 
with  a  crest  of  wet  snow  on  his  mane,  a  patch  on  the 
upper  hairs  of  his  tail  and,  most  of  them,  with  a  line 
of  white  running  down  the  backbone.  They  looked 
quite  as  miserable  as  Jack  felt. 

On  one  of  Jack's  returns  to  the  fire,  Hugh  looked  up 
and  said  smilingly,  "  You're  getting  pretty  tired  of 
doing  nothing,  son  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Jack,  "  it's  pretty  slow  business,  I 
confess.  I've  been  trying  to  think  if  there  was  any- 
thing that  I  could  do  and  I  can't  think  of  anything, 
unless  I  go  over  and  take  down  some  of  that  meat  and 
cut  it  up  for  drying." 

"Well,"  said  Hugh,  "that's  certainly  not  a  bad 
idea.  What  do  you  say  if  we  go  over  there  and  get 
a  quarter  and  work  on  it  under  a  tree  where  the  snow 
doesn't  fall  thick?" 

"  I'd  like  to,  Hugh,"  said  Jack.  "  Of  course,  noth- 
ing would  dry  to-day  and  maybe  not  to-morrow,  but 
if  we  could  have  two  or  three  days  of  bright  weather 
we  could  get  it  so  it  would  keep." 

"  We  sure  could,"  said  Hugh ;  "  and  even  if  we  don't 
have  bright  weather,  we  can  rig  up  some  kind  of  a 
scaffold  and  half  dry  and  half  smoke  it  with  the  fire. 
Come  on,  I'll  go  with  you  and  we'll  get  down  a  piece 
of  meat  and  go  to  work  on  it." 

It  was  but  a  short  distance  to  where  the  meat  hung, 
and,  before  long,  one  of  the  hind  quarters  of  the  elk 


A    LYNX    VISITS    CAMP  181 

was  on  the  ground.  Hugh  stopped  in  front  of  it 
and  said,  "  Now,  son,  take  hold  of  it  and,  when  I  get 
up,  raise  it,  and  we'll  pack  it  into  camp." 

The  load  was  too  heavy  for  an  ordinary  man  to 
carry  a  great  distance,  but  this  did  not  seem  to  trouble 
Hugh.  He  threw  down  the  ham  under  a  spreading 
pine  tree,  that  stood  not  far  from  the  tent,  and  then 
Jack  and  he  removed  the  skin,  and  began  the  work  of 
cutting  the  flesh  into  thin  flakes,  which  they  piled  up 
on  the  flesh  side  of  the  hide  that  had  been  taken  off  the 
elk.  They  worked  at  this  for  some  hours  and  before 
supper  time  had  cut  out  all  the  meat  of  the  elk. 

"  Now,  son,"  said  Hugh,  "  go  and  get  me  a  sling- 
rope  and  we'll  hoist  this  meat  off*  the  ground.  If  we 
leave  it  here,  likely  some  animal  will  come  around  to- 
night and  want  to  carry  it  off." 

"  Well,  Hugh,  I  don't  believe  I  can  climb  the  tree/' 
said  Jack;  for  the  trunk  was  very  large  and  without 
branches  for  twenty-five  or  thirty  feet  above  his  head. 

"  No,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  don't  believe  you  can  and, 
what's  more,  we  haven't  got  any  sling-rope  that  will 
reach  from  the  ground  to  that  lowest  branch  and  back 
again.  We'll  tie  it  up  to  that  little  tree  that  stands 
close  to  the  tent.  Of  course,  it  won't  be  safe  there, 
but  I  reckon  anything  can't  get  at  it  without  our  hear- 
ing it." 

He  made  a  bundle  of  the  meat,  lashing  it  with  a 
sling-rope. 

"  There,"  he  said,  "  that's  all  right  for  the  present, 
and  we'll  put  it  up  here  in  this  spruce  tree.  Nothing 
can  knock  it  down  without  its  hitting  the  tent  and 
waking  us,  but  if  we  should  want  to  dry  it  to-morrow, 
someone  will  have  to  stop  here  and  look  after  it,  if 


1 82        JACK,   THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

the  others  go  off  on  the  mountains.  Now  let's  have 
supper." 

Hugh  and  Jack  washed  their  hands  in  the  snow, 
built  up  the  fire,  and  presently  commenced  to  cook 
supper.  After  things  were  going  well,  Jack  called  out, 
"  Get  up,  Joe,  you've  been  asleep  all  day,  while  other 
people  have  been  working.     Supper  is  nearly  ready." 

Joe  grunted  sleepily  in  response  and,  presently,  his 
black  shock  of  hair  was  seen  poking  out  of  the  tent 
door. 

"  I  must  have  been  asleep,"  he  said. 

"Asleep?"  said  Jack  "I  should  say  so.  It's  five 
or  six  hours  since  you  turned  in  and  here  Hugh  and  I 
have  been  working  all  that  time  to  support  you." 

Joe  was  not  wide  enough  awake  to  appreciate  Jack's 
joke,  but  after  he  had  walked  a  little  way  from  the 
fire  and  given  his  face  and  hands  a  good  scrubbing 
with  snow,  he  brightened  up  a  good  deal  and  seemed 
to  watch  the  progress  of  the  meal  with  interest. 

"  I  tell  you  what,"  said  Hugh,  as  they  were  eating, 
"  let's  turn  back  the  flaps  of  the  tent  and  build  a  small 
fire  right  close  in  front  of  it.  Of  course,  we'll  have  to 
watch  it  pretty  carefully  and  put  it  out  when  we  want 
to  go  to  bed,  but  it  will  seem  a  heap  more  comfortable 
than  to  be  standing  about  the  fire  out  here." 

"  Good/'  said  Jack,  "  let's  do  it.  If  you'll  wash  the 
dishes  I'll  cut  some  small  wood  and  we'll  get  something 
as  near  like  a  lodge  as  we  can." 

When  the  fire  was  built  and  when  the  three  were 
sitting  on  their  soft  blankets  under  the  shelter  of  the 
tent,  it  seemed  very  comfortable. 

"  There,"  said  Hugh,  "  this  is  lots  better  than  stand- 
ing out  there,  boys,  ain't  it  ?  " 


A    LYNX    VISITS    CAMP  183 

"  Yes,"  said  Joe,  "  it  is." 

"  Bully"  said  Jack.  "  We  couldn't  be  more  com- 
fortable than  this,  unless  we  had  a  lodge,  and  this  is 
plenty  good  enough." 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  would  like  to  have  brought 
a  small  lodge,  but  then  I  knew  we  were  coming  into 
a  stormy  country  and  very  likely  often  would  have  to 
camp  high  up  where  we  couldn't  get  lodge  poles,  and  so 
I  thought  it  was  better  to  bring  this  little  tent  with 
the  folding  poles.  Of  course,  sleeping  out  on  the 
prairie  in  this  weather  one  doesn't  need  a  tent,  but 
in  the  mountains  here,  where  you're  likely  to  have 
ten  rain  or  snow  storms  in  a  day,  it's  good  to  keep 
your  blankets  dry." 

While  he  was  speaking,  Hugh  was  cutting  tobacco, 
and  when  he  had  a  pipeful,  after  grinding  it  up  be- 
tween his  palms,  he  filled  the  bowl  of  the  pipe  and 
reaching  out  took  a  brand  from  the  fire  and  lighting  his 
pipe  sat  there  in  great  comfort,  drawing  in  deep  breaths 
of  the  fragrant  smoke. 

"  Well,"  he  remarked,  when  his  pipe  was  going  well, 
"  I  never  would  advise  a  young  man  to  begin  to  smoke, 
but  I  don't  know  of  anything  in  this  world  that  has 
given  me  more  comfort  than  tobacco,  and  that  is  one 
thing  that  the  world  has  got  to  thank  the  Indians 
for." 

"  Well,  pretty  nearly  everybody  smokes,"  said  Jack, 
"  and  I've  often  thought  that  maybe  I'd  like  to,  espe- 
cially when  I  see  you  sitting  there  as  you  do  now, 
Hugh.  You  seem  to  take  such  solid  comfort  in  your 
pipe." 

"  Yes,"  assented  Hugh,  "I  do ;  but  then,  suppose 
I'd  never  learned  to  smoke;  don't  you  suppose  I'd  be 


1 84        JACK,    THE   YOUNG   EXPLORER 

just  as  comfortable  as  I  am  now?  A  man  don't  miss 
the  things  that  he's  never  enjoyed." 

"  No,  of  course  not,"  replied  Jack. 

For  a  long  time  the  three  sat  there,  gazing  at  the 
little  fire  that  flickered  before  them,  Joe  occasionally 
reaching  over  and  carefully  laying  on  it  a  stick  of  wood 
so  that  it  constantly  burned  bright  and  warm. 

At  length  Jack  spoke  up  again  and  said,  "  Hugh, 
where  were  you  in  1876,  when  the  Custer  massacre 
took  place  ?  " 

"  I  was  up  camping  with  the  Piegans,  not  far  from 
the  Sweet  Grass  Hills.  I  had  been  trading  the  year 
before  with  the  Piegans,  and  instead  of  going  into 
Benton  and  lying  around  there  during  the  summer,  I 
just  stayed  out  in  camp  with  the  people.  But  look 
here,  son,"  he  went  on,  "  don  t  make  the  mistake  that 
pilgrims  do  and  call  that  the  Custer  massacre;  call  it 
if  you  like  the  Custer  fight  or  the  Custer  battle.  It 
wasn't  what  I  understand  a  massacre  to  be;  it  was 
just  a  fair  up-and-down  fight,  and  the  white  men  got 
licked  and  all  of  them  got  killed  off.  The  white  men 
went  into  that  fight  with  their  eyes  wide  open  and  knew 
what  they  were  doing.  They  just  tackled  a  job  that 
was  too  big  for  them,  that's  all.  Now,  you  might  call 
the  Baker  fight  that  I  was  telling  you  about  a  few  days 
ago  a  massacre,  because  it  was  a  surprise  and  because 
the  troops  attacked  the  camp,  and  killed  off  mostly 
women  and  children  and  old  men.  That's  my  idea 
of  a  massacre,  but  the  Custer  fight  was  just  a  fight, 
and  nothing  else." 

"  That's  so,  Hugh,"  said  Jack,  "  I  oughtn't  to  have 
called  it  a  massacre,  but  that's  what  a  good  many 
people  do  call  it,  you  know." 


A    LYNX    VISITS    CAMP  185 

"  I  know  they  do,"  said  Hugh,  "  but  it's  a  wrong 
name  to  give  it,  at  least  according  to  my  idea." 

"  Did  you  ever  know  General  Custer?  "  asked  Jack. 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  knew  him  some.  I  worked 
for  him  part  of  one  summer  out  from  Lincoln ;  I  was 
one  of  the  scouts  on  the  Yellowstone  expedition  in  73 
and  again  in  '74,  when  he  made  his  trip  to  the  Black 
Hills." 

"  What  sort  of  a  man  was  he?  "  asked  Jack. 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  he  was  a  nice  man.  Of 
course,  I  never  knew  him,  except  in  what  you  may  call 
a  business  way,  to  take  orders  from  him  and  to  report. 
He  was  always  right  pleasant,  and  his  wife  was  an 
awful  nice  lady.  He  was  a  good  soldier,  General  Cus- 
ter was,  and  a  great  hunter.  He  was  just  crazy  to  be 
hunting  all  the  time.  He  treated  his  men  well,  too; 
worked  them  awful  hard,  breaking  camp  early  in  the 
morning  and  sometimes  marching  away  into  the  night, 
but  they  thought  a  heap  of  him.  I  remember  one 
time,  going  into  the  Black  Hills,  two  of  the  men  were 
caught  stealing  canned  goods  out  of  one  of  the  wagons. 
We  camped  early  the  afternoon  they  were  caught,  and 
he  had  them  each  ride  a  cannon  from  the  time  we  went 
into  camp  until  after  dark.  Then  he  had  'em  cut  loose 
and  brought  to  his  tent,  and  he  gave  them  a  good  talk- 
ing to,  and  a  day  or  two  afterward  he  appointed  one 
of  them,  an  old  soldier  and  a  pretty  good  man,  too, 
his  orderly.  The  other  man  he  gave  permission  to  go 
hunting  the  next  day.  He  was  pretty  savage  with  his 
men  when  they  did  wrong,  but  after  he'd  punished  a 
man,  he  always  did  something  to  him  to  make  him  feel 
that  he  did  not  hold  the  offense  up  against  him.  That 
made  the  men  have  confidence  in  him,  and  it  made  a 


1 86        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

good  many  of  them  careful  about  how  they  did  any- 
thing wrong. 

"  I  haven't  told  you,  have  I,"  he  went  on,  "  that 
Jackson,  Billy  Jackson,  you  know,  was  along  with 
that  outfit  in  1874." 

"  Yes,"  said  Jack,  "  I  think  you  told  me  that." 

"  I  didn't  know  him  then,"  said  Hugh.  "  He  was 
just  a  schoolboy.  We  had  quite  a  bunch  of  schoolboys 
along.  They  were  called  scouts,  and  maybe  they 
thought  they  were  scouts,  but,  of  course,  they  were 
just  boys  out  of  the  Indian  schools  without  experi- 
ence, and  not  knowing  anything.  They  were  mostly 
Santee  Sioux." 

"Well,"  said  Jack,  "but  Billy  is  a  Piegan,  isn't 
he?" 

"  Yes,  a  Piegan,"  replied  Hugh,  "  a  grandson  of 
old  Hugh  Monroe's  and  on  his  mother's  side  a  grand- 
son of  a  great  chief  that  died  before  my  time  with 
the  tribe,  a  man  called  Lone  Walker.  They  said  he 
was  a  great  man.  An  awful  big  man,  brave  and  rich. 
He  had  nineteen  wives,  and  old  man  Monroe  has  told 
me  that  when  he  first  came  with  the  tribe — that  must 
be  nearly  seventy-five  years  ago — Lone  Walker  had 
two  grizzly  bears  that  he  used  to  keep  tied  up,  one  on 
either  side  of  the  door  of  his  lodge.  The  old  man  said 
that  the  first  time  he  ever  went  into  the  lodge,  both 
bears  got  up  and  growled  and  started  to  attack  him. 
He  said  he  was  scared  pretty  near  to  death,  but  Lone 
Walker  spoke  to  them  and  they  became  quiet  and  went 
and  lay  down  again.  Old  man  Monroe  lived  in  Lone 
Walker's  lodge  for  two  or  three  years  after  that  and, 
of  course,  the  bears  got  used  to  him  right  away  and 
never  bothered  him;  in  fact,  I  believe  it  wasn't  very 


A    LYXX    VISITS    CAMP  187 

long  after  that  before  the  bears  ran  away  and  were 
never  seen  again." 

"  But,  Hugh,  were  they  tame  bears  ?  "  asked  Jack. 

"  I  don't  rightly  know,"  responded  Hugh.  "  They 
were  tame  to  the  man  that  owned  them,  I  expect,  and 
they  say  that  during  the  day  when  the  camp  was  mov- 
ing, the  bears  used  to  travel  with  it,  walking  along  with 
the  dogs.  They  didn't  bother  anybody  or  anything 
and  nothing  bothered  them ;  but,  finally,  I  believe,  they 
ran  off,  and  although  Lone  Walker  looked  for  them 
he  could  not  find  them.'' 

"Well,"  said  Jack,  "  those  seem  to  me  like  queer 
pets  for  a  man  to  have,  but  after  all  I  don't  know  that 
they  are  any  queerer  than  poor  old  Swift  Foot  that  I 
used  to  have." 

"  No,"  said  Hugh,  "  any  tame  wild  animal  may 
seem  strange  to  a  person  who  never  has  seen  a  tame 
one  before,  but  any  wild  animal  can  be  tamed,  and  if 
he's  taken  young  enough  he  won't  have  any  fear  of 
man.  The  trouble  is,  though,  to  make  him  stay  tame. 
He's  naturallv  shy.  and  while  he  may  be  all  right  when 
his  owner's  around,  if  he  gets  among  strange  people, 
the  natural  fear  that  he's  inherited  from  his  ancestors 
will  come  back  to  him,  and  he'll  run." 

"  That's  what  happened  to  poor  old  Swift  Foot,  I 
am  afraid,"  said  Jack. 

"What  Swift  Foot?"  said  Joe.  "I  never  heard 
about  that." 

"Why,  haven't  I  ever  told  you  about  him,  Joe?" 
said  Jack.  "  Four  or  five  years  ago,  the  first  year  I 
was  in  the  West,  we  dug  out  a  den  of  wolves  and  kept 
the  puppies,  and  some  of  them  became  very  tame. 
I  took  one  back  East  with  me  and  had  him  two  or  three 


188         JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

years.  He  was  just  like  a  dog  with  me  and  felt  at 
home  with  all  the  other  people  in  the  house,  but  I  never 
dared  let  him  loose  on  the  streets,  for  fear  he  would 
get  lost.  In  the  country,  when  I  went  there,  I'd  turn 
him  loose  and  he  would  run — Great  Scott !  you  never 
saw  anything  so  wild  to  run  as  he  was.  Then,  when 
Fd  bring  him  back  to  the  city  again  I'd  have  to  keep 
him  chained  and  give  him  what  little  exercise  I  could 
on  a  chain.  Of  course,  he  grew  awfully  fat,  and  I 
think  if  I'd  had  him  much  longer  he'd  have  gotten 
cross,  too ;  but  finally,  one  unlucky  day,  I  took  him  out 
walking,  and  over  near  Third  Avenue,  a  crowded 
street  where  there  is  a  great  deal  of  noise  and  the  ele- 
vated railroad  trains  are  running  all  the  time,  some- 
thing frightened  him  and  he  dodged  behind  me  and 
gave  a  pull  on  the  chain,  and  it  pulled  loose  from  his 
collar,  and  before  I  could  grab  him  he  got  frightened 
and  ran.  He  ran  like  a  deer,  dodging  among  the 
trucks  and  horses  and  cars,  and  though  I  called  and 
whistled  he  never  stopped,  and  I  never  saw  him  again. 
Father  advertised,  and  we  tried  our  best  to  hear  some- 
thing of  him,  but  it  was  no  use." 

"  I  don't  wonder  he  got  scared,"  said  Joe.  "  I  guess 
I'd  be  scared  a  whole  lot  with  so  many  people  round 
me,  and  no  place  to  get  away." 

"  You're  right,"  said  Hugh,  "  so  would  I.  It  must 
be  something  terrible  in  those  big  cities." 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  it  is  terrible  the  way  the 
people  crowd  about.  Of  course,  those  who  live  there 
are  used  to  it  and  don't  pay  any  attention,  but  people 
that  haven't  been  used  to  hearing  the  noises  and  seeing 
the  crowds,  could  easily  enough  get  scared." 

A  little  later  Hugh  rose  to  his  feet  and  stepped  out 


A    LYNX    VISITS    CAMP  189 

of  the  tent,  saying  as  he  did  so,  "  Boys,  I  believe  we're 
going  to  have  a  nice  day  to-morrow.  It's  stopped 
snowing,  all  the  stars  are  out  and  the  moon  is  just 
rising.  It  feels  mighty  warm,  too.  Likely  enough 
to-morrow  the  sun  will  come  out  hot  and  take  off  the 
heft  of  this  snow.  Then  we  can  get  round  a  bit  and 
can  dry  this  meat." 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  I'd  like  to  be  able  to  dry  our 
meat.  Of  course,  there's  no  trouble  killing  meat  here, 
but  one  doesn't  want  to  kill  a  big  animal  for  a  single 
meal." 

"  No,"  said  Hugh,  "  you're  right  about  that.  Meat 
is  plenty  here,  but  that's  no  reason  why  we  should 
waste  it.  Now,  let's  put  this  fire  out  and  cover  it  up 
with  snow,  so  that  there'll  be  no  danger  of  the  tent's 
catching  fire,  and  then  we'll  go  to  bed.  What  do  you 
say?" 

At  once  the  boys  were  on  their  feet,  pulling  the  fire 
to  pieces  and  extinguishing  the  burning  brands,  by 
throwing  them  into  the  snow,  and  then  bringing  a  few 
double  handfuls  of  snow  they  threw  them  on  to  the 
ashes  of  the  fire,  and  with  much  smoke  and  steam  the 
last  sparks  were  extinguished.  A  little  later  the  regu- 
lar breathing  of  the  three  men  in  the  tent  showed  that 
all  were  asleep. 

It  must  have  been  in  the  middle  of  the  night  or  per- 
haps toward  morning,  when  Jack  was  half  awakened 
by  hearing  a  noise,  something  like  scratching,  which 
he  did  not  recognize,  but  a  moment  later  he  was  thor- 
oughly aroused  by  hearing  a  loud  thump  on  the  ground 
just  outside  the  tent  and  then  the  sound  of  something 
galloping.  His  first  thought  was  that  one  of  the 
horses  had  come  up  close  to  the  tent  and  knocked  some- 


190        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

thing  down,  but  almost  at  once  he  recognized  that  this 
could  not  have  been  the  cause  of  the  sound,  because  the 
footfalls  were  not  heavy  enough  to  have  been  made 
by  a  horse.  Rising  on  his  elbow,  he  looked  about.  It 
was  quite  light  in  the  tent,  for  a  brilliant  moon  was 
shining,  and  he  could  plainly  see  Hugh  get  up,  walk  to 
the  door  and  look  out. 

"  What  is  it,  Hugh?  "  asked  Jack. 

For  a  moment  Hugh  did  not  answer,  and  then  said, 
"  Why,  something  has  carried  off  that  bundle  of  meat. 
No,  he  hasn't  either.  Here's  the  meat  lying  in  the 
snow  and  there  is  the  thing  that  knocked  it  down  over 
there  under  the  pine  tree,  where  we  were  cutting  up 
the  elk.  I  can  see  it  plain  in  the  snow,  but  I  can't 
make  out  what  it  is.  It's  some  animal,  because  it's 
moving." 

By  this  time  Jack  was  on  his  feet  and  had  his  head 
out  of  the  tent  door.  He  could  plainly  see  some  not 
very  large  animal  crouched  in  the  snow  and  could  hear 
faintly  the  scratching,  tearing  sound  of  an  animal 
gnawing  a  bone,  and  at  once  said,  "  Why,  Hugh,  what- 
ever it  is,  he's  gnawing  on  the  bones  of  that  elk  we 
left  over  there." 

"  So  he  is,"  said  Hugh.  "  Let's  see  what  it  is,"  and, 
reaching  down,  he  took  his  rifle  and,  stepping  outside 
of  the  tent  door,  fired  at  the  creature.  It  paid  no  at- 
tention whatever,  but  went  on  eating.  Then  Hugh 
fire  another  shot  and  then  another,  and  after  the 
fourth  shot,  the  animal  sprang  into  the  air  and,  turn- 
ing about,  bounded  off  into  the  shadow  and  was  not 
seen  again.  Hugh  picked  up  the  bundle  of  elk  meat 
and  put  it  in  among  the  branches  of  the  tree,  and  then 
he  and  Jack  went  back  into  the  tent. 


A   LYNX    VISITS    CAMP  191 

"What  was  it,  Hugh?"  asked  Jack. 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  don't  know.  It  was  either 
a  mountain  lion  or  a  lynx  or  a  bob-cat,  but  whatever  it 
was,  it  wasn't  a  bit  afraid." 

"  No,"  said  Jack,  "  I  could  see  that.  We  ought  to 
be  glad  that  it  didn't  come  into  the  tent  with  us." 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  we'll  know  what  it  is  in  the 
morning,  when  it  gets  light." 

For  the  remainder  of  the  night  their  rest  was  undis- 
turbed. They  rose  early,  and  while  breakfast  was 
being  cooked  Hugh  walked  over  to  where  the  animal 
had  been,  and  after  looking  about,  came  back  and  told 
the  boys  that  the  disturber  of  their  rest  had  not  been  a 
mountain  lion. 

"  I  wish  after  we  get  breakfast  you  would  show  me 
how  you  know  that,  Hugh,"  said  Jack. 

"  I  will,"  said  Hugh,  "  but  I  can  tell  you  now.  The 
place  where  it  was  lying  is  too  small  for  a  mountain 
lion.  There  is  no  mark  anywhere  on  the  snow  of 
a  long  tail,  such  as  a  lion  would  have,  and  then  out 
there  I  picked  up  this,"  and  he  took  from  his  pocket  a 
little  tuft  of  hair,  gray,  mixed  with  reddish.  "  Do 
you  recognize  that  fur?"  he  said,  as  Jack  took  it  in 
his  hand  and  looked  at  it. 

"  No,"  said  Jack,  "  I  don't.  But  then  you  know  I 
don't  know  many  of  the  mountain  animals." 

"  No,"  said  Hugh,  "  you  don't,  and  I  don't  think  Joe 
does,  either.  But  unless  I'm  mightily  mistaken  that 
came  from  a  lynx,  one  of  those  big  animals  like  a  bob- 
cat, only  a  good  deal  bigger,  and  gray  instead  of  red. 
They've  got  black  tips  to  their  ears  and  a  kind  of 
whiskers  around  their  necks,  and  they  look  awful 
fierce  and  savage,  but  it's  all  looks.     Though  they 


192         JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

seem  to  be  so  big,  a  man  can  kill  one  with  a  stick  and 
not  a  very  big  stick,  either." 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  let's  go  over  there  as  soon  as 
we've  eaten." 

After  breakfast  Hugh  and  Jack  took  their  rifles 
and  went  over  to  the  place  where  the  animal  had  been 
sitting,  and  Hugh  pointed  out  the  animal's  tracks, 
which  looked  very  large. 

"  Now,  in  this  soft  snow,"  observed  Hugh,  "  I  can't 
tell,  and  I  don't  believe  anybody  else  can,  whether  this 
is  a  lynx's  track  or  a  mountain  lion's,  but  if  it  was  a 
mountain  lion's,  every  little  while  as  you  followed  it 
you'd  see  some  place  where  the  lion's  tail  had  made  a 
mark  in  the  snow.  We  don't  find  anything  of  that 
sort  here.  Now,  what  do  you  say  to  following  up  these 
tracks,  and  seeing  where  the  critter's  gone?" 

"  Let's  do  it,"  said  Jack,  eagerly. 

Quietly  and  slowly  they  followed  the  trail,  which  was 
very  plain,  and  found  that  only  about  twenty  or  thirty 
steps  from  the  place  where  the  animal  had  been  shot 
at,  it  had  stopped  and  lain  in  the  snow  for  some  time, 
and  that  in  this  bed  was  a  drop  or  two  of  blood.  Ap- 
parently one  of  the  shots  that  Hugh  fired  had  grazed 
the  skin  somewhere. 

"  Well,  Hugh,"  said  Jack,  "  that  beast  isn't  much 
frightened  and  it  may  be  anywhere  about  here.  Let's 
go  ahead,  as  carefully  and  quietly  as  we  can." 

From  here  the  trail  led  into  thick  willows,  where  it 
wound  about,  and  where,  owing  to  the  closeness  of 
the  willow  stems,  it  was  not  easy  to  go  quietly.  Every 
few  moments  Hugh  stopped  and  looked  carefully  about, 
and  then  went  on  a  little  farther.  When  he  had  fol- 
lowed the  trail  for  a  little  more  than  a  hundred  yards. 


A   LYNX    VISITS    CAMP  193 

the  tracks  turned  sharply  to  the  right,  and  just  as  they 
turned  to  follow  them,  Hugh  made  a  motion  with  his 
hand  and  stopped.  Jack  looked  under  Hugh's  arm, 
and  there,  not  twenty  yards  away,  saw  the  animal.  A 
large  spruce  tree  grew  among  the  willows  and  at  its 
foot  was  a  little  open  place.  The  lynx,  for  such  it 
was,  was  lying  in  the  sun  at  the  foot  of  this  tree,  and 
only  its  hips  were  visible. 

Hugh  motioned  to  Jack  to  shoot,  but  before  the  lad 
could  do  so,  he  was  obliged  to  creep  several  yards  to 
the  left  under  the  low-spreading  branches  of  a  willow. 
At  last  he  got  far  enough  to  one  side  to  see  the  animal's 
body  almost  to  the  shoulders,  and  then  fired,  trying  to 
send  his  ball  as  close  to  the  tree  as  possible.  At  the 
report  the  animal  gave  a  spring,  and,  falling  back, 
stretched  itself  out  in  the  snow.  When  Hugh  and 
Jack  went  up  to  it  they  could  see  that  it  was  a  Canada 
lynx  of  the  largest  size,  and  as  it  lay  there,  its  thick 
legs,  and  huge  paws,  armed  with  long,  strong  claws, 
gave  it  a  more  ferocious  appearance  than  it  was  really 
entitled  to. 

Those  paws  were  a  man-el  to  Jack  on  account  of 
their  size,  and  the  way  in  which  they  were  armed,  but 
when  he  took  hold  of  the  animal  to  lift  it,  he  appre- 
ciated what  Hugh  had  told  him  about  its  really  small 
size,  and  realized  that  a  great  deal  of  its  bulk  was  due 
to  its  long,  loose  fur. 

Hugh  took  the  lynx  by  the  back  of  the  neck  and  a 
few  minutes  brought  them  to  the  camp. 

Joe  was  delighted  with  their  capture,  and  confessed 
that  he  had  never  before  seen  an  animal  like  this. 

"  Now,  Hugh,"  said  Jack,  "  I  want  to  skin  this 
beast,  that  is,  if  you  will  give  me  the  skin." 


i94        JACK,   THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

"  Sure/'  replied  Hugh,  "  I'll  give  you  my  share  in 
the  skin.     You  killed  it,  and  it  seems  to  me  it's  yours." 

"  Yes,"  said  Jack,  "  I  killed  it,  of  course,  since  you 
gave  me  the  shot,  but  by  hunter's  law  the  skin  belongs 
to  you.  Isn't  it  true  that  the  first  shot  that  draws  blood 
is  entitled  to  half  the  meat  and  the  hide?  " 

"  That's  so,"  said  Hugh,  "  that's  the  old-time  law 
that  I  used  to  hear  down  in  Kentucky,  before  I  got 
big  enough  to  pack  a  gun.  That's  what  they  always 
said  down  there  and  I  reckon  that's  been  the  custom 
ever  since  this  country  was  a  country.  But  you  can 
have  the  hide  and  all  the  meat.  I'll  give  'em  both  to 
you.     Keep  them  always." 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  I'm  mightily  obliged  to  you 
for  the  hide,  but  I  don't  feel  as  if  I  could  rob  you  of  the 
meat." 

"  Well,"  replied  Hugh,  "  maybe  you  don't  know 
what  you're  refusing.  I  never  did  happen  to  eat  bob- 
cat myself,  but  I've  eaten  mountain  lion,  and  that's 
pretty  good  meat.  A  little  dry  maybe,  and  tastes  a 
little  too  much  like  dry  roast  pork  to  suit  me,  but  it's 
good  all  the  same." 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  I'll  skin  this  bob-cat  now,  I 
think.  How  shall  I  do  it,  Hugh,  split  it,  or  shall  I 
case  it?  " 

"  Why,"  said  Hugh,  "  if  I  were  you  I'd  case  it. 
That's  the  regular  way  to  skin  a  bob-cat,  and  while 
you're  skinning  it,  suppose  Joe  and  I  go  down  and  see 
how  the  horses  are  and  look  after  our  fence.  I 
reckon  we  don't  want  to  stay  here  much  longer,  but 
while  we  do  stay  we  must  watch  the  horses." 

"Well,"  said  Jack,  "that's  for  you  to  say.  I'm 
ready  to  stay  or  I'm  ready  to  go.     I'd  like  to  have  a 


A   LYXX    VISITS    CAMP  195 

chance  to  climb  up  where  you  went  the  other  day  to 
look  down  into  Belly  River.  Maybe  I  can  do  that 
to-day  or,  at  least,  this  afternoon,  if  I  start  as  soon  as 
I  get  through  my  job  of  skinning." 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  reckon  you  could.  Go  ahead 
at  it  now,  and  Joe  and  me  will  go  and  look  at  the 
horses." 


CHAPTER  XV 

LONE     WOLF'S    BAY     PONY 

It  did  not  take  Jack  long  to  skin  the  lynx,  but  before 
he  had  finished  stretching  it,  Hugh  and  Joe  came  back 
and  reported  that  the  horses  were  all  right. 

By  this  time  the  sun  had  come  out  and  was  shining 
hot,  and  the  snow  melting  rapidly.  A  warm  breeze 
blew  down  the  valley  from  the  westward,  and  as  they 
watched  the  mountainsides  above  them,  the  boys 
thought  that  they  could  see  the  dark  patches  not  cov- 
ered by  snow  increase  in  size  as  they  looked  at  them. 

"  Well,  boys,"  said  Hugh,  "  if  you  want  to  climb 
up  and  look  over  into  Belly  River,  go  ahead  and  do  it, 
and  get  back  as  early  as  you  can.  This  spot  here  is 
mighty  pretty,  but  I  reckon  we've  seen  about  all  of  it 
that  we  want  to,  and  unless  you've  got  some  special 
chore  that  you  want  to  attend  to,  we  might  as  well 
pack  up  and  go  up  one  of  the  other  forks.  I  don't  see 
any  special  reason  for  stopping  here.  We've  got  what 
meat  we  need,  and  what  we  want  to  see  is  new 
country." 

"That's  so,  Hugh,"  said  Jack;  "we'll  go  up  to  the 
top  of  the  mountain  and  then  come  back  and  move 
down  to  the  forks  as  soon  as  you  like." 

"  And  look  here,  son,"  said  Hugh,  "  why  don't  you 
go  up  there  alone,  and  while  you  are  gone,  Joe  and  I 
will  start  in  to  dry  this  meat  we've  got  cut  out." 

196 


LONE    WOLF'S    BAY    POXY  197 

"  All  right,"  said  Jack.  "  I'll  do  that,  or  if  you  like, 
I'll  not  go  up  there,  but  stay  here  and  fix  the  meat." 

"  No,"  said  Hugh,  "  you  go  on  and  make  your  climb, 
and  Joe  and  I'll  fix  the  meat,  and  if  you  get  back  in 
time  maybe  we  can  move  camp  down  below  this  after- 
noon, or  if  not  we  can  start  the  first  thing  in  the 
morning." 

"All  right,"  said  Jack;  and  he  took  up  his  rifle  and 
started  up  the  mountainside. 

It  was  a  long,  slow  climb.  For  the  first  half,  the 
way  was  over  steep  open  mountainside,  dotted  here  and 
there  with  small  spruces  and  cedars,  and  the  soil  was 
now  wet  with  the  melting  snow,  and  often  slippery. 
Still  he  made  good  time.  The  side  of  the  mountain 
was  seamed  with  ravines,  and  broken  here  and  there 
by  low  rock  ledges ;  and  two  or  three  times  as  he 
went  on  he  found  himself  within  easy  shot  of  little 
bunches  of  goats.  When  Jack  saw  these,  if  he  could 
do  it  without  losing  time,  he  crept  as  close  to  them  as 
possible,  and  then  showing  himself,  hurried  on.  Some 
of  the  goats  seemed  quite  shy  and  ran  off,  while  others 
looked  at  him  for  a  long  time  until  he  got  quite  close 
to  them,  and  then  turned  and  paced  slowly  off  along 
the  hillside. 

When  he  reached  the  rocks,  he  found,  as  Hugh  had 
told  him,  a  break  in  the  wall,  cut  by  falling  water,  and 
entering  this,  began  to  climb  among  the  steep  rocks  and 
ledges,  which  it  often  required  some  care  to  surmount, 
but  which  were  not  difficult  nor  at  all  dangerous. 

An  hour  and  a  half  of  climbing  of  this  sort  brought 
him  to  the  crest  of  the  wall,  and  creeping  upon  this  he 
hung  over  and  looked  down  into  a  wonderfully  deep 
and  dark  canyon  beyond.     From  the  other  side  of  the 


198        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

canyon  a  great  mountain  rose  sharply,  and  its  summit 
was  covered  with  a  vast  snowbank  which  lay  upon  a 
great  mass  of  ice.  Evidently,  thought  Jack,  here  is  a 
glacier.  The  mass  of  ice  was  apparently  moving 
toward  the  valley  and  would  break  off  over  this  cliff 
and  then  fall  a  thousand  feet  into  the  valley  below. 

It  was  a  wonderfully  impressive  sight,  yet  Jack 
stayed  but  a  little  time.  He  was  wet  with  perspiration, 
and  up  here  the  breeze  blew  strong  and  cold.  Besides, 
he  thought  of  his  friends  in  camp,  and  was  anxious  to 
get  back  to  them  and  help  them  with  their  work.  So 
after  some  minutes'  study  of  the  scene,  during  which 
he  tried  to  impress  all  its  features  upon  his  memory,  he 
turned  about  and  slipping  off  the  crest  of  the  rock 
wall,  picked  his  way  down  the  ravine. 

The  journey  to  camp  seemed  much  shorter  than  the 
climb,  and  when  Jack  strode  up  to  the  fire  warm  and 
muddy  and  wet  up  to  the  knees,  the  afternoon  had  not 
half  gone. 

Hugh  and  Joe  had  built  a  large  platform  of  poles 
supported  on  four  crotched  sticks.  Under  this  they 
had  kindled  a  slow  smoky  fire,  and  on  the  poles  rested 
flakes  of  elk  meat,  which  were  being  dried  by  the  sun 
above  and  the  fire  and  smoke  beneath.  A  part  of  the 
meat  had  evidently  been  already  partially  dried  and  was 
hanging  in  bundles  from  the  branches  of  one  of  the 
trees. 

"  Well,  son,"  remarked  Hugh,  "  you've  got  back, 
have  you?     Quite  a  climb,  wasn't  it?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Jack,  "  it  was  quite  a  climb,  but  I  think 
it  was  worth  it.  That's  a  mighty  pretty  view  from  the 
top  of  that  ridge,  and  I'm  glad  I  saw  it.  You're  get- 
ting on  pretty  well  with  your  meat,  I  see." 


LONE    WOLF'S    BAY    POXY  199 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  we've  given  it  all  a  little  touch 
of  the  sun  and  smoke,  and  I  don't  believe  the  flies  will 
get  at  it  right  away." 

"  What  are  you  going  to  do?  "  asked  Jack.  "  Wait 
here  and  finish  with  the  meat,  or  go  on  down  and  camp 
at  that  lake  we  passed?  " 

"  Why,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  believe  we  might  as  well  get 
up  the  horses  and  ride  down  to  the  lake.  It  won't  take 
us  more  than  a  couple  of  hours,  and  we  can  stop  there 
to-morrow  and  put  this  meat  out  again,  go  up  that 
short  fork  that  lies  in  the  middle,  and  then  the  next 
day  poke  over  and  see  if  we  can  get  up  the  other  fork 
that  lies  beyond  the  lake." 

"  All  right,"  said  Jack.  "  Shall  I  go  out  and  bring 
in  the  horses?" 

"  Say  you  do,"  said  Hugh.  "  Joe  and  me'll  pull 
down  the  tent  and  make  up  the  packs,  and  it'll  take  us 
a  mighty  short  time  to  get  started." 

The  snow  had  disappeared  from  the  valley.  The 
horses  were  in  sight  and  Jack  got  around  them  and 
brought  them  in.  Joe  helped  him  catch  and  saddle 
them,  and  by  the  time  this  was  done,  the  tent  was  down 
and  Hugh's  packs  were  mostly  made  up.  The  work 
of  packing  was  speedily  finished,  and  a  little  later  the 
three  were  following  back  their  trail  of  a  few  days 
before. 

Instead  of  stopping  by  the  lake,  where  there  was  but 
little  feed  and  not  a  very  good  camping  place,  Hugh 
went  on  to  their  old  camp,  where  the  tent  was  pitched 
and  the  scafTold  erected  and  covered  with  meat.  A 
good  breeze  was  blowing,  and  Hugh  declared  that  if 
they  stayed  here  one  day  more,  the  meat  would  be  in 
shape  to  pack. 


-oo        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

By  the  time  the  camp  was  made,  the  sun  was  touch- 
ing the  western  mountains,  and  it  was  too  late  to  do 
anything  that  day. 

"  If  we  had  a  little  more  daylight,  son,"  said  Hugh, 
"  I'd  send  you  out  with  that  fishing  rod  of  yours  to 
catch  some  trout,  but  it's  too  late  for  that.  Now,  I'll 
just  get  supper,  and  we'll  have  a  good  long  night  and 
to-morrow  morning  we  can  all  go  up  the  middle  fork 
of  this  creek,  and  see  what  there  is  there." 

The  wind  fell  with  the  sun,  and  after  supper  they 
sat  around  the  fire,  resting.  Toward  the  mountains 
they  could  hear  the  never-ceasing  rumble  of  the  falls 
from  the  river,  and  now  and  then  this  sound  would  be 
drowned  by  a  thunderous  roar  from  the  mountains, 
ending  in  a  long,  hissing  sound.  After  the  boys  had 
listened  to  these  noises  for  some  time,  Joe  said  to 
Hugh,  "  What  is  this  we  hear,  White  Bull  ?  It  sounds 
like  the  Thunder  Bird  flapping  his  wings  at  first,  and 
then  kind  of  dies  off  into  a  smaller  noise." 

"  Why,"  said  Hugh,  "  those  are  snowslides  coming 
down  from  the  mountains  here  and  there.  You  see 
to-day  has  been  pretty  warm,  and  the  sun  has  shone 
hot  and  heated  up  the  rocks,  and  in  lots  of  places  the 
snow  has  melted  so  much  that  it  lets  go  its  hold  on  the 
steep  slopes  and  rushes  down  the  mountainside.  You 
boys  have  never  been  in  the  mountains  at  this  time  of 
the  year,  but  you'll  find  that  when  the  snow  is  melting 
in  spring,  it's  always  sliding  down  the  mountains. 
It's  a  mighty  dangerous  time  to  be  in  the  high  hills, 
because  a  man  can  never  tell  when  one  of  these  snow- 
slides  is  going  to  start,  and  when  it  does,  it  gets  going 
so  fast  there's  no  chance  for  a  man  to  dodge  it.  Lots 
of  men  have  been  killed  by  being  covered  up  by  such 


LONE    WOLF'S    BAY    POXY  201 

slides,  and  often  they  are  so  big  and  come  so  hard  that 
they  smash  everything  that  gets  in  their  way." 

"  Yes,  White  Bull,  that's  so,"  said  Joe.  "  Jack  and  I 
saw  two  places  near  where  we  were  camped  yesterday 
where  the  snow  had  come  down  and  broken  off  big 
strong  trees,  trees  bigger  around  than  your  body.'' 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh.  "  There  are  lots  of  such  places 
in  the  mountains,  and  we're  likely  to  see  more  of  them 
before  we  get  out.  These  mountains,"  he  went  on, 
"  are  a  great  place  to  see  what  wind  and  water  can  do. 
There's  no  place  that  I  know  of  where  the  wind  can 
blow  so  hard ;  there's  no  place  where  the  snow  is  worse, 
and  there's  no  place  where  the  floods  are  more  powerful. 
Of  course,  none  of  those  things  lasts  very  long,  but  any 
one  of  them  can  do  a  heap  of  damage  in  a  mighty  short 
time.  Down  in  the  high  mountains  of  Colorado  I 
have  seen  some  bad  snowslides,  and  I  knew  a  little 
fellow  down  there  that  used  to  carry  the  mail  over  the 
range  that  got  caught  in  a  snowslide  once.  Luckily, 
he  only  got  caught  on  the  edge  of  it  and  it  didn't 
kill  him.  It  just  carried  him  along  a  little  ways,  roll- 
ing him  over  and  over,  and  fetched  him  out  on  a  point 
of  solid  rock  that  he  managed  to  hang  on  to,  but 
although  he  wasn't  in  the  snow  more  than  a  minute  or 
two,  he  was  all  bruised  up  and  felt  for  a  good  many 
days  afterward  as  if  he'd  been  beaten  with  a  club. 

"  Joe  Bruce,  too,"  he  continued,  "  got  caught  in  a 
snowslide  once  when  he  was  crossing  the  mountains, 
and  came  pretty  near  being  killed;  but  he,  too,  only 
got  caught  on  the  edge  and  got  thrown  around  some 
and  came  out  with  his  life." 

"  Well,"  said  Joe,  "  I  never  heard  him  speak  about 
that." 


202         JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

"  No,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  reckon  not.  You  know  Bruce 
ain't  no  great  talker;  he  ain't  much  of  a  hand  to  tell 
about  things  that  have  happened  to  himself.  And  that 
reminds  me,  did  I  ever  tell  you  about  the  way  Bruce 
got  back  a  horse  that  was  stolen  once  from  Carroll  & 
Steele,  when  they  ran  a  trading-post  down  in  Benton 
in  the  early  days?  That's  a  pretty  good  story,  but 
it's  better  to  hear  Joe  Bruce  tell  it  than  anybody  else. 
Still,  maybe  I  can  give  you  an  idea  of  what  happened." 

"  That's  bully,  Hugh,"  said  Jack,  "  I  love  to  hear 
your  stories." 

"  I've  forgotten,"  went  on  Hugh,  "  what  year  it 
was,  but  it  was  in  the  early  '6o's  that  Matt  Carroll  and 
George  Steele  were  running  their  trading-post  in  Ben- 
ton. Both  Carroll  and  Steele  had  been  working  for 
the  American  Fur  Company  in  years  gone  by,  but  now 
they  had  formed  a  partnership,  and  were  trading  on 
their  own  account.  The  country  was  full  of  buffalo 
and  there  was  a  big  trade  in  robes.  Of  course  the 
Piegans  did  all  their  trading  at  Benton,  and  every  now 
and  then  a  party  of  Bloods  and  Blackfeet  would  bring 
in  a  lot  of  robes  from  the  north.  These  Indians  were 
masters  of  the  whole  country  then,  and  they  were  pretty 
independent.  They  were  fighting  all  their  enemies 
and  now  and  then  they  killed  a  white  man,  when  they 
got  a  good  chance.  Of  course,  they  were  not  openly 
at  war,  but  any  Indian  who  saw  a  white  man  that 
had  something  that  he  wanted  was  liable  to  kill  him  if 
he  got  a  good  chance.  Now,  at  this  time  in  one  of 
the  Piegan  camps  close  to  Benton  there  was  a  young 
fellow  named  Lone  Wolf,  who  did  his  trading  with 
Carroll  &  Steele,  and  one  day  George  Steele  bought  a 
horse  from  him,  a  bay  pony,  that  Lone  Wolf  said  was 


LONE    WOLF'S    BAY    POXY  203 

an  awful  good  horse  and  a  good  buffalo  runner.  After 
Lone  Wolf  had  sold  the  horse  he  got  sorry  that  he 
had  done  so,  and  he  used  to  come  to  the  store  and  sit 
around  looking  sullen  and  sad;  his  heart  was  pretty 
bad. 

"  Bruce,  who  was  then  only  a  boy,  noticed  that  Lone 
Wolf  was  sulky,  but  he  did  not  know  what  the  matter 
was.  He  had  charge  of  the  horses,  and,  of  course, 
fed  and  watered  those  that  were  kept  in  the  barn,  a 
big  log-stable  with  a  padlock  and  chain  on  the  door. 

"  One  morning  as  he  was  coming  back  from  water- 
ing the  horses  and  drove  them  into  the  stable,  he  saw 
Lone  Wolf  sitting  on  the  ground  not  far  off.  Bruce 
followed  the  horses  into  the  stable,  tied  them  in  their 
stalls  and  fed  them,  but  before  he  had  finished,  some- 
one called  to  him,  and  he  went  out  of  the  barn  to  find 
out  what  was  wanted. 

"  He  wasn't  gone  more  than  a  few  minutes,  and 
when  he  came  back  and  went  into  the  stable  he  saw 
in  a  moment  that  the  bay  horse  was  missing.  He  ran 
to  the  door  and  looked  out.  Lone  Wolf  was  gone,  too; 
up  and  down  the  flat  and  along  the  bluffs  he  could  see 
no  sign  of  the  Indian  nor  of  the  horse,  nor  was  there 
any  dust  rising  to  show  where  they  had  gone. 

"  Bruce  went  into  the  store  and  told  Steele,  and 
Steele  blew  him  up  for  his  carelessness.  Of  course, 
there  was  nothing  to  be  done,  but  Steele  told  him  that 
he  must  look  out  and  not  lose  any  more  horses. 

"  It  made  the  boy  feel  pretty  badly  to  have  had  the 
horse  taken  right  under  his  nose,  and  to  have  had 
an  Indian  play  such  a  trick  on  him.  Bruce  made  up 
his  mind  that  he  would  try  to  get  the  horse  back,  but 
he  knew  that  this  was  going  to  be  quite  a  job. 


204         JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

"  For  some  time  after  that  Lone  Wolf  was  not  seen 
in  Benton.  If  he  wanted  anything  at  the  store,  he  sent 
in  for  it  by  his  wife  or  some  other  Indian  and  did  not 
send  to  Carroll  &  Steele's,  but  to  the  other  trading- 
store. 

"  Old  Four  Bears — the  same  one  that  you  boys 
know — used  to  come  into  town  every  day  to  Carroll 
&  Steele's  and  tell  Bruce  about  the  good  luck  that 
Lone  Wolf  was  having  chasing  buffalo  with  his  fast 
horse.  Every  day  or  two  he'd  come  in  and  report  that 
Lone  Wolf  had  killed  six  buffalo  or  four  buffalo  or 
eight  buffalo  or  eleven,  and  when  Four  Bears  made 
these  reports,  why,  he  used  to  laugh  over  them  as  if 
they  were  the  best  jokes  in  the  world,  but  you  can 
imagine  that  they  didn't  seem  very  funny  to  Bruce. 

"  Every  day,  when  he  went  out  to  ride  a  horse, 
Bruce  would  go  off  toward  the  Piegan  camp,  and  hide 
in  the  brush  or  on  top  of  some  hill,  and  watch  the  camp 
with  a  field  glass,  so  as  to  find  out  how  they  were  treat- 
ing the  stolen  horse,  in  the  hope  that  some  day  he 
would  have  a  chance  to  steal  it  back  again.  There 
didn't  seem  to  be  much  likelihood  that  this  would  hap- 
pen, because  the  camp  was  a  big  one,  and  when  the 
horses  were  sent  out  they  were  almost  always  herded  by 
one  or  two  boys.  Besides  that,  Bruce  found  that  they 
had  tried  to  change  the  looks  of  the  pony.  His  ears 
were  tied  back  so  that  he  looked  crop-eared,  and  they 
had  painted  him  with  white  clay  in  spots,  so  that  at  a 
distance  he  looked  like  a  pinto.  However,  after  a  while 
Bruce  found  out  which  horse  it  was  and  then  discov- 
ered that  he  was  always  necked  to  another  horse. 

"  After  a  while,  the  camp  that  Lone  Wolf  lived  in 
moved  further  away  from  Benton,  so  that  when  Bruce 


LONE    WOLF'S    BAY    PONY  205 

wanted  to  go  to  it  he  had  about  a  thirteen-mile  ride  to 
make.  It  seemed  that  his  chances  of  getting  the  horse 
were  growing  smaller.  However,  one  afternoon  he 
started  out  feeling  pretty  desperate  and  made  his  ride 
and  got  as  close  as  he  could  toward  the  Indian  lodges, 
and  commenced  to  watch  again.  At  length  he  saw  a 
boy  drive  the  horses  to  water,  and  keeping  behind  some 
hills  and  timber  he  managed  to  ride  within  two  hun- 
dred yards  of  the  place  where  the  horses  were  drinking, 
and  stopped  there,  hidden  behind  some  brush.  Pres- 
ently, he  saw  the  boy  who  was  herding  them  go  into  a 
lodge,  and  in  a  moment  he  rushed  out,  dashed  between 
the  horses  and  the  lodges  and  started  the  band  off 
toward  the  prairie.  As  soon  as  he  got  them  going  he 
rode  through  them,  roped  the  bay  pony,  cut  it  loose 
from  its  mate,  and  shortening  up  his  lariat  and  stick- 
ing the  spurs  into  his  own  mount,  he  started  off  over 
the  bad  land  bluffs. 

"  As  he  looked  back  he  saw  the  Indians  rushing  out 
of  the  lodges  and  looking  after  him,  shading  their  eyes 
from  the  sun.  Then  they  rushed  back  to  get  their 
guns,  and  the  boys  brought  in  the  horses. 

"  It  was  not  long  before  a  string  of  Indians  were 
riding  hot  after  Bruce.  His  horse  was  grain-fed  and 
strong  and  tough  and  better  able  to  run  for  a  long 
time  than  the  Indian  ponies,  which,  of  course,  had  been 
fed  on  grass.  The  captured  pony  could  go  fast 
enough,  as  he  had  no  load  to  carry,  so  Bruce  com- 
menced to  ride  across  the  roughest  country  that  he 
could  find,  down  the  side  of  one  clay  bluff  and  up  the 
next,  following  a  road  that  was  heartbreaking  to  a 
rider.  More  than  that,  the  sun  was  about  to  set,  and 
before  long  it  would  be  dark. 


206        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

"  For  a  little  while,  all  the  same,  the  Indians  seemed 
to  gain  on  him,  and  he  did  not  feel  any  way  sure  how 
matters  were  coming  out.  He  managed  to  keep  ahead, 
however,  and  when  it  got  dark,  turned  sharp  off  his 
course  and  followed  the  ravine  down  to  the  river, 
while  the  Indians  kept  riding  as  hard  as  they  could  in 
the  direction  that  he  had  previously  been  following, 
and  nobody  knows  when  they  stopped. 

"  Bruce  rode  down  to  the  river  and  crossed  to  an 
island  where  he  tied  the  bay  horse  in  the  brush  with  a 
rope  that  he  had  previously  left  there.  Then  he  went 
on  to  the  post  and  went  to  bed. 

"  The  next  morning  he  went  to  Steele  and  asked 
him  what  he  would  give  to  get  the  bay  pony  back 
again.  Steele  knew  Bruce  pretty  well,  and  said  to  him 
at  once,  '  You've  got  him.' 

"  '  Well,'  said  Bruce,  '  I  think  I  know  how  I  could 
get  him/ 

"  '  Well,'  said  Steele,  '  if  I  were  to  get  him  he'd  only 
be  stolen  again,  and  if  you've  got  him  you  can  have 
him.' 

"  So,  presently,  Bruce  went  over  to  the  island  and 
got  the  horse  and  brought  him  back  and  put  him  in  the 
stable.  He  hadn't  much  more  than  tied  him  and  got 
out  of  the  stable  again,  when  he  saw  old  Four  Bears 
coming.  Four  Bears  had  not  heard  the  news,  because 
his  band  was  camped  in  a  different  place  from  that  of 
Lone  Wolf,  and  the  old  man  came  up  bubbling  over 
with  joy  and  told  Bruce  how  many  buffalo  Lone  Wolf 
had  killed  yesterday.  He  thought  this  was  just  as 
good  a  joke  now  as  he  had  the  first  time  he  had  told 
a  similar  story,  and  Bruce  thought  it  a  much  better 
one.       However,    Bruce    after    a    while     remarked. 


LONE    WOLF'S    BAY    PONY  207 

'Steele's  got  a  new  black  horse  in  the  stable.  Don't 
you  want  to  come  in  and  see  it?'  Four  Bears  went 
along  and  went  into  the  stable  and  looked  at  the  black- 
horse,  and  then  saw  the  hips  of  the  horse  in  the  next 
stall,  and  stepping  forward  where  he  could  see  the 
whole  of  the  animal,  he  recognized  it.  He  hadn't  a 
word  to  say,  but  just  clapped  his  hand  over  his  mouth 
in  surprise  and  walked  out  without  a  word.  You  can 
bet  that  Bruce  watched  that  stable  good  after  that,  so 
that  there  was  no  chance  for  Lone  Wolf  to  steal  the 
horse  back  again." 

"  Well,"  exclaimed  Jack,  "  that's  a  bully  story,  but, 
what  became  of  the  horse  finally  ?  " 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  if  you'll  hold  your  horses 
a  little  bit  I'll  go  ahead.  The  story  ain't  half  finished 
yet." 

"  I  beg  your  pardon,  Hugh,"  replied  Jack,  "  I  was  in 
a  little  too  much  of  a  hurry." 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  Bruce  took  good  care  of  the 
horse  and  whenever  he  rode  him  after  that  kept  a 
bright  lookout.  Nothing  happened,  and  after  a  while 
he  got  a  little  careless,  and  one  day,  as  he  was  riding 
along  and  went  around  a  point  of  the  bluffs  he  saw, 
not  a  hundred  yards  away,  Lone  Wolf  riding  along 
the  trail  toward  him,  with  his  rifle  across  his  saddle. 
Bruce  had  a  revolver,  but  he  didn't  dare  to  reach  for  it, 
because  he  knew  that  would  mean  a  fight,  and  at  the 
distance  which  separated  the  two  men,  the  rifle  would 
be  likely  to  get  him  before  he  could  do  anything  with 
his  pistol.  He  was  afraid  to  turn  and  run,  for  Lone 
Wolf  might  paste  him  in  the  back,  so  he  kept  on,  never 
letting  on  that  he  noticed  Lone  Wolf,  or  had  any  feel- 
ing about  him.     He  played  with  his  quirt  some  and 


208        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

finally  after  twisting  it  about  a  little,  let  his  hand  fall 
on  the  handle  of  his  pistol.  All  the  time  he  was  getting 
nearer  and  nearer  to  the  Indian,  which  gave  him  a  lot 
of  comfort. 

"  Lone  Wolf  never  said  or  did  anything,  and  pres- 
ently Bruce  rode  up  to  him,  and  turning  his  horse  so 
as  to  bring  him  on  the  side  opposite  the  butt  of  the 
rifle,  told  Lone  Wolf  that  Steele  had  sent  him  out  to 
look  for  him  to  ask  him  to  come  to  the  post,  where  he 
had  a  present  for  him,  because  he  wanted  to  make 
friends.  The  Indian  looked  at  the  pony  and  smiled  a 
little  and  then  said  he'd  go,  and  the  two  rode  side  by 
side  into  the  fort,  talking  in  a  friendly  way,  but  each 
one  of  them  on  the  watch,  you  can  bet. 

"  When  they  got  to  the  store  Lone  Wolf  was  fed  and 
given  a  lot  of  tobacco  and  ammunition,  and  he  made 
Steele  a  present  of  a  handsome  parfleche,  which  he  had 
on  his  saddle. 

"  Bruce  kept  the  horse,  and  I  one  Wolf  and  he  never 
had  any  trouble  again.  Lone  Wolf  was  killed  a  few 
years  afterwards  by  the  Crows. 

"  Well,  that's  the  end  of  how  Bruce  got  the  horse ; 
and  now,  if  you  like,  I'll  tell  you  what  finally  became 
of  him. 

"  It  was  some  years  afterwards,  in  the  late  '6o's,  and 
the  Indians  were  bad.  A  good  many  men  had  been 
killed,  miners  and  trappers  and  freighters ;  and  a  lot  of 
horses  had  been  run  off.  People  did  not  like  to  go 
far  from  the  post,  and  at  night  they  had  a  guard  round 
the  town,  fearing  that  maybe  the  Indians  would  at- 
tack them.  The  horses  were  on  short  commons ;  there 
was  mighty  little  hay  in  town  and  the  only  place  folks 
dared  to  pasture  them  was  down  on  the  flat  where  the 


LONE    WOLF'S    BAY    PONY  209 

feed  was  mighty  poor,  because  that  was  where  the 
freighters  camped  and  fed  their  stock.  There  were  a 
few  people  whose  horses  were  on  ranches  at  some  dis- 
tance from  the  post,  and  as  there  was  nobody  traveling 
back  and  forth  in  the  country,  most  of  these  people 
thought  that  their  horses  were  gone  and  made  up  their 
minds  to  pocket  the  loss.  However,  a  friend  of  Matt 
Carroll's  had  a  couple  of  fine  driving  horses  that  were 
running  on  a  ranch  about  fifteen  miles  below  Benton. 
This  man  needed  his  team. 

"  Two  or  three  times  Carroll  had  tried  to  get  men 
to  go  for  the  horses,  but  nobody  was  willing  to  make 
the  ride.  At  last  it  occurred  to  Carroll  that  Bruce 
might  go,  and  he  offered  him  fifty  dollars  to  ride  down 
and  bring  up  the  animals.  With  a  good  horse,  it 
would  take  him  only  two  hours  to  go  down  and  per- 
haps three  more  to  return,  so  that  by  making  an  early 
start,  he  could  get  back  to  the  post  in  time  for  dinner. 
Bruce  never  was  afraid  of  much  of  anything,  and  he 
had  a  good  deal  of  confidence  in  his  luck,  and  fifty 
dollars  to  him  looked  like  a  lot  of  money ;  so  he  agreed 
to  go. 

"  That  evening,  feeling  pretty  good  about  the  money 
that  he  was  going  to  earn,  Bruce  started  out  for  a 
good  time  in  the  barrooms  and  dance-houses  of  the 
town,  but  about  the  middle  of  the  night,  when  he 
started  to  go  home,  he  remembered  that  he  was  on 
patrol  duty  for  the  morning  watch,  so  instead  of  going 
to  bed  he  simply  slept  a  little  in  a  chair  by  the  barroom 
stove  until  called  to  go  on  patrol. 

"  After  breakfast,  Bruce  saddled  up  the  bay  pony 
that  he  had  got  from  Lone  Wolf  and  started. 

"  He  was  pretty  stupid  and  dull  from  lack  of  sleep, 


210        JACK,   THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

and  rode  much  more  slowly  than  he  intended  to. 
When  he  reached  the  bottom  of  a  steep  ravine,  down 
which  his  horse  went  slowly  and  carefully,  he  was 
suddenly  grabbed  by  a  dozen  hands,  pulled  out  of  the 
saddle,  his  gun  taken  from  him,  his  horse  captured, 
and  a  half  dozen  Indians  were  standing  about  him, 
one  of  whom  had  a  butcher  knife  at  his  throat.  He 
thought  they  intended  to  kill  him  right  there,  but  an 
old  man  who  was  with  them  stopped  the  young  men, 
and  said  that  the  captive  must  be  taken  before  the 
chiefs.  Accordingly  they  stripped  off  all  his  clothing, 
except  his  drawers,  undershirt  and  moccasins,  and  then 
took  him  up  to  where  a  group  of  warriors  were  gath- 
ered on  the  bluff. 

"  The  old  man  who  had  saved  his  life  was  present 
and  seemed  to  be  watching  him.  It  was  a  war  party 
that  had  got  him.  There  were  no  women,  no  travois, 
no  pack  ponies,  and  the  men,  wrapped  in  blankets  and 
robes,  carried  nothing  but  their  arms. 

"  Of  course,  you  know  that  Bruce  talks  half  a  dozen 
languages — Sioux,  Mandan,  Blackfoot,  some  Crow 
and  two  or  three  more. 

"  As  they  were  approaching  the  group,  the  old  man 
told  him  that  they  were  going  to  question  him  and 
that  he  must  answer  them  truthfully. 

"  *  If  you  do  this  you  will  be  protected.  You  and  I 
have  slept  in  the  same  lodge  and  have  eaten  together, 
but  you  must  answer  the  questions.  The  hearts  of 
these  young  men  are  bad,  and  they  want  horses  and 
scalps.' 

"  When  they  had  got  to  the  chiefs,  who  were  sitting 
about  on  the  ground,  Bruce  was  asked  how  many  men 
were  at  the  post,  how  they  were  armed,  whether  they 


LONE    WOLF'S    BAY    PONY  211 

were  on  the  watch  for  enemies,  how  many  horses  there 
were,  and  where  they  were  herded. 

These  questions  had  to  be  answered,  and  answered 
as  truthfully  as  possible,  and  when  it  was  proposed  to 
kill  Bruce  and  take  his  scalp  first,  for  luck,  his  old 
friend  objected.  At  last  they  decided  to  take  Bruce 
down  to  the  river  and  send  him  across,  because  when 
he  was  on  the  other  side,  it  would  be  impossible  for 
him  to  give  the  alarm.  So  they  tied  his  hands  to  the 
tail  of  a  horse  ridden  by  one  man,  while  another  rode 
behind — to  keep  him  from  pulling  back,  I  reckon — • 
and  they  started  for  the  river. 

"  His  moccasins  did  him  little  good  now  and  his 
underclothing  tore  at  every  bush  they  passed.  The 
horses  galloped  at  an  ordinary  rate  and  Bruce  had  to 
keep  up,  for  if  he  had  fallen  he  would  have  been 
dragged  and  kicked  to  death. 

"  It  took  but  a  little  time  to  reach  the  river,  but  it 
seemed  a  long  time  to  Bruce,  whose  feet  and  legs  were 
cut,  and  his  back  and  shoulders  creased  with  blows 
from  the  quirts. 

"  When  they  got  to  the  river,  his  hands  were  loos- 
ened and  the  Indians  dismounted,  took  the  covers  off 
their  guns  and  signed  Bruce  to  jump  in.  He  jumped 
and  swam  under  water  just  as  far  as  he  possibly  could 
hold  his  breath. 

"  The  current  was  swift,  and  when  he  came  up  he 
was  a  long  way  below  the  Indians,  but  he  took  only 
one  breath  and  dived  again,  keeping  on  until  at  last 
he  reached  a  shallow  place  and  dragged  himself  out  on 
the  north  side  of  the  river,  wThere  he  sat  down  to  get 
back  his  breath  and  think  what  he  could  do. 

"  Before  this  he  had  no  time  to  think.     The  prospect 


212         JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

had  been  so  black  for  him  that  he  had  been  looking 
only  to  see  what  would  happen  the  next  minute.  He 
was  now  in  bad  shape,  bruised  and  bleeding  and  half 
frozen  to  death,  and  he  just  broke  down  and  cried  like 
a  little  child. 

"  At  last  he  climbed  the  bank  and  found  himself  at 
an  old  cabin,  long  abandoned.  Here,  looking  aim- 
lessly about,  he  happened  to  find  an  old  Colt's  revolver, 
which  had  been  lost  or  thrown  away.  It  was  now  en- 
tirely useless,  and,  besides,  even  if  it  had  been  in  good 
order  he  had  no  ammunition. 

"  He  took  this  up,  however,  and  started  back  toward 
the  post,  going  in  low  places  and  traveling  out  of  sight, 
like  an  Indian. 

"  It  was  well  along  in  the  afternoon  when  he  heard 
on  the  wind,  that  was  blowing  hard,  faint  sounds  of 
yelling  and  shooting.  The  noise  sounded  as  if  it 
came  from  the  post,  but  he  was  not  going  to  take  any 
risks,  so  he  hid  himself  until  after  sunset.  It  was 
bitter  cold  by  that  time,  and  he  was  obliged  to  start  on 
or  freeze  to  death. 

"  He  now  traveled  at  a  better  speed,  and  quite  early 
in  the  evening  rounded  a  lofty  bluff  and  kept  along  on 
top  of  it.  Presently  on  the  rising  wind  he  heard  the 
sound  of  voices,  but  he  could  not  tell  whether  they  were 
those  of  the  whites  or  Indians.  He  lay  flat  on  the 
ground  and  waited,  and  as  the  sounds  came  nearer, 
presently  he  could  distinguish  the  forms  of  men 
against  the  sky. 

"  They  stopped  not  very  far  away  and  talked,  and 
he  thought  then  that  they  were  the  Indians,  and  had 
almost  made  up  his  mind  to  drop  over  the  bluff  and 
take  his  chances  of  being  killed  by  the  fall,  when  a 


-      < 


LONE    WOLF'S    BAY    PONY  213 

sudden  whiff  of  wind  brought  him  some  words  in  Eng- 
lish, and  he  knew  that  the  men  were  from  the  post. 

"  The  gale  made  it  useless  for  him  to  try  to  call  to 
them,  but  he  felt  that  he  must  do  something,  for  at 
any  time  they  might  see  his  white  clothing  and  shoot 
at  him.  He  gave  a  shout,  calling,  '  Don't  shoot,  don't 
shoot,'  and  holding  both  his  hands  above  his  head,  ran 
forward  and  found  himself  in  the  midst  of  a  party 
that  had  been  sent  out  to  look  for  him.  A  raid  on  the 
town  had  captured  a  few  horses  and  had  cost  the  life 
of  a  white  man,  while  two  of  the  Indians  had  been 
killed,  but  among  the  horses  lost  was  Lone  Wolf's 
bay  pony,  which,  so  far  as  I  know,  was  never  heard  of 
again." 

"  That  certainly  is  a  bully  story,  Hugh,"  said  Jack. 

"  Yes,"  said  Joe,  "  that  story  is  good.  I  have 
heard  the  people  talk  about  it  sometimes,  but  I  never 
heard  it  all,  as  White  Bull  has  told  it  to  us  to-night. 
I  like  it. 

"  Those  Indians  were  Gros  Ventres,"  he  went  on, 
"  and  at  that  time  they  were  still  enemies  of  my  people, 
but  soon  after  peace  was  made." 


CHAPTER  XVI 

AN  ICE  RIVER 

Early  the  next  morning,  while  they  were  eating-  break- 
fast, Hugh  said,  "  Now,  boys,  let's  saddle  and  ride  up 
this  middle  fork.  I  don't  think  it  goes  far,  and  I 
reckon  we'll  not  see  much  up  there.  We  can  come 
back  and  maybe  pack  up  and  get  to  the  head  of  the 
other  fork  to-night.  You  boys  go  out  right  after 
breakfast  and  picket  the  pack  horses  and  bring  in  the 
saddle  animals,  while  I'm  washing  up  the  dishes  and 
rigging  up  a  scare  over  this  meat,  to  keep  off  the 
birds." 

When  the  boys  got  in  with  the  saddle  horses,  after 
tying  the  pack  horses  so  that  they  could  not  follow, 
they  found  that  Hugh  had  put  up  a  pole  which  slanted 
over  the  meat  on  the  scaffold,  and  to  that  pole  he  had 
tied  a  cross-stick  from  which  a  long  strip  of  cloth  was 
waving  merrily  in  the  breeze. 

i(  There,"  said  Hugh,  "  as  long  as  this  wind  blows, 
no  bird  or  animal  will  bother  that  meat.  Now  let's 
start  along." 

They  rode  fast  up  the  valley  of  the  middle  fork, 
for  in  most  places  it  was  fairly  open;  sometimes  in 
pretty  park-like  meadows,  where  the  tall  white-crowned 
flower  stems  of  the  soap  grass  waved  in  the  wind, 
sometimes  in  broad  flat  meadows  of  wet  ground,  which 
looked  supiciously  like  beaver  meadows,  and  some- 
times in   scattering  pine  timber  growing   from  low 

214 


AN    ICE    RIVER  215 

mounds.  As  they  advanced,  the  valley  grew  narrower, 
and  on  both  sides  the  mountains  rose  high  and  steep, 
but  here  and  there  on  the  heights  above  they  could  see 
the  edges  of  snow  fields,  and  when  they  reached  the 
head  of  the  valley  they  found  themselves  under  a  tall 
precipice,  over  which  flowed  two  great  water-falls, 
which  had  their  sources  in  the  snow  banks  far  above. 
It  was  a  cold,  gray  place,  grim  and  grand,  but  not 
picturesque  nor  beautiful,  and  soon  all  three  wore 
glad  to  turn  about  and  gallop  down  the  valley  toward 
the  sunlight,  which  was  flooding  the  lower  country. 

It  was  not  yet  noon  when  they  reached  the  camp, 
and  Hugh  said  they  would  just  stop  for  dinner  and 
then  move  on. 

The  boys  loosened  the  cinches  of  the  saddle  horses, 
tied  them  up,  brought  in  the  pack  horses  and  saddled 
them,  and  took  down  the  tent  and  packed  up  the  meat, 
which  by  this  time  was  quite  dry.  An  hour  later, 
Hugh  mounted  his  horse  and  they  again  set  out  up  the 
trail. 

Jack  did  not  clearly  see  how  they  were  going  to  get 
into  the  valley  of  the  other  fork,  as  the  way  appeared 
blocked  by  the  lake  on  their  left,  which  seemed  to  run 
to  the  very  bases  of  the  mountains  which  lay  on  three 
sides  of  it.  However,  he  followed  Hugh  and  asked  no 
questions. 

Joe,  however,  said,  "  How7  do  you  suppose  we're 
going  to  get  into  that  valley,  Jack?  Are  we  going  to 
swim  this  lake?  " 

"  You  can't  prove  it  by  me,"  said  Jack.  "  But  I 
reckon  Hugh  will  find  a  wray." 

"  That's  so,"  said  Joe,  "  White  Bull  knows  how  to 
travel  in  the  mountains.     I  guess  we'll  get  there." 


216        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

Hugh  followed  the  trail  that  they  had  now  passed 
over  several  times,  until  he  had  reached  the  head  of  the 
lake,  and  then  turning  off  into  the  forest  to  the  left, 
began  to  pick  his  way  toward  the  mountains  that  lay 
west  of  the  lake.  Before  long  they  came  to  the  stream 
along  which  they  had  traveled  in  the  morning.  It 
was  wide,  but  not  deep,  and  the  bottom  was  hard. 
There  was  much  pine  timber  and  a  good  deal  of 
marshy  land  through  which  they  passed  slowly  and 
with  some  difficulty,  but  at  length  they  came  to  higher 
ground  where  progress  was  better. 

As  they  went  on  they  could  see  sometimes  through 
the  trees  the  water  of  the  lake  on  the  left ;  while  to  the 
right  the  mountainside  rose  above  them. 

After  a  mile  or  two  of  this  travel  they  came  to  more 
marshy  meadow  ground  and  then  entered  a  belt  of 
forest,  and  passing  through  this,  found  themselves  in 
a  wide  willow-grown  park,  which  evidently  had  once 
been  the  bed  of  a  shallow  lake. 

Mountains  rose  on  either  side,  and  to  the  left  they 
could  hear  the  murmur  of  the  stream.  This  stream 
they  crossed  and  following  it  up,  before  long  found 
themselves  on  the  border  of  another  long,  narrow  lake, 
hemmed  in  on  both  sides  by  mountains.  The  timber  on 
this  side  grew  thickly,  and  Hugh,  instead  of  trying  to 
go  through  it,  kept  out  a  little  way  in  the  lake,  riding 
just  beyond  the  overhanging  branches  of  the  trees  and 
in  water  which  was  from  six  inches  to  a  foot  deep. 
The  bottom  was  hard  gravel — good  going. 

The  country  was  absolutely  wild  and  undisturbed, 
and  Jack  expected  every  moment  to  see  or  hear  game 
in  the  timber.  He  kept  looking  and  listening  for  this 
so  intently  that  he  neglected  the  bare  sides  of  the 


AN    ICE    RIVER  217 

mountains  across  the  lake,  until  Joe,  who  was  just 
before  him,  driving  the  pack  horses  that  followed 
Hugh,  turned  and  making  a  sign  to  attract  his  atten- 
tion, pointed  to  the  mountainside.  Then  Jack  saw, 
lying  down  on  the  face  of  the  cliff,  far  above  the  water 
and  really  at  a  great  distance  from  him,  a  monstrous 
white  goat.  He  was  greatly  impressed  by  the  beast, 
which,  as  it  lay  there  with  its  head  lowered,  its  long 
beard  nearly  reaching  to  the  ground,  the  hump  on  its 
back  and  its  low  hind  quarters,  reminded  him  very 
much  of  a  buffalo. 

By  the  time  the  travelers  had  reached  the  head  of 
the  lake  the  sun  had  disappeared  and  long  shadows 
were  creeping  up  the  sides  of  the  mountain  to  the 
east  of  them. 

Hugh  stopped  his  horse,  looked  about  a  little,  and 
said,  4k  Now,  boys,  I  don't  know  what  there  is  beyond 
here,  and  it's  getting  late  in  the  day.  I  reckon  we  may 
as  well  stop  and  camp  here  and  then  to-morrow  morn- 
ing look  out  a  trail  up  above.  We're  not  greatly 
rushed  for  time,  and  if  we  travel  in  the  dark  we're 
liable  to  run  into  some  mud  hole,  or  find  a  lot  of  fallen 
timber,  and  perhaps  get  in  trouble  that  will  take  us 
some  little  time  to  get  out  of.  Let's  camp  here  and  do 
our  exploring  to-morrow.  We'll  have  to  pitch  the  tent 
in  the  timber  and  I  reckon  the  horses  can  get  along  in 
this  little  park  at  the  head  of  the  lake.  There  isn't 
very  much  for  them  to  eat,  and  so  we'll  have  to  tie  them 
up.  Suppose  we  unload  here,  and  I'll  begin  to  get 
supper  while  you  boys  make  some  pins  and  picket  the 
horses,  and  put  up  the  tent." 

They  did  as  he  said,  and  when  darkness  fell  the 
white  tent  gleamed  among  the  green  timber,  and  a  fire 


218        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

— perhaps  the  first  ever  kindled  on  the  borders  of  this 
lake — cast  its  cheerful  gleam  over  the  water. 

Camp  was  astir  very  early  the  next  morning,  for 
this  was  to  be  a  day  of  real  exploration;  a  trip  up  to 
the  head  of  the  narrow  valley  and  then  perhaps  a  climb 
up  the  mountains  beyond,  for  Hugh  had  said  that  the 
main  Divide  was  probably  near  at  hand. 

During  the  talk  of  the  evening  before,  he  had  ex- 
pressed the  belief  that  they  could  go  only  a  little  far- 
ther with  horses,  and  that  when  they  reached  the  head 
of  the  valley  the  animals  must  be  left  behind,  and  the 
mountains,  stern  and  forbidding,  the  snow-covered 
peaks  which  had  been  in  sight  ever  since  they  had 
entered  the  valley,  must  be  climbed  afoot. 

While  breakfast  was  being  cooked,  Joe  and  Jack 
changed  the  pack  horses  to  fresh  grass,  and  brought  in 
and  saddled  the  three  riding  animals.  A  little  later 
all  three  mounted,  and  Hugh  taking  the  lead,  they 
plunged  into  the  forest  to  try  to  find  a  trail  to  the  foot 
of  the  mountains. 

It  was  not  easy  riding.  The  timber  was  thick  and 
stood  close  together.  Hugh  made  his  way  down  to 
the  stream  in  the  hope  that  it  would  be  possible  to 
ride  up  its  bed  and  so  avoid  the  obstacles  in  the  forest, 
but  though  they  entered  the  creek,  they  were  soon 
obliged  to  leave  it,  for  it  was  blocked  by  masses  of 
drift  timber,  over  which  the  horses  could  not  pass. 
They  had  traveled  a  little  more  than  half  a  mile  up 
the  valley,  when  they  came  to  the  edge  of  a  snow- 
slide,  the  path  of  an  enormous  avalanche,  which  many 
years  before  had  rushed  down  the  mountainside,  mak- 
ing a  path  through  the  forest  several  hundred  yards  in 
width. 


AN    ICE    RIVER  219 

From  this  open  space  a  fine  view  was  had  of  the 
mountains,  and  of  a  great  glacier  that  lay  at  the  head 
of  the  valley — an  enormous  mass  of  ice  a  mile  or  two 
wide  and  a  half  mile  deep,  lying  in  a  great  cup  in  the 
mountainside.  The  glacier  was  covered  for  the  most 
part  with  new  fallen  snow,  but  here  and  there  broken 
surfaces  showed  blue  or  green  in  the  light  of  the  morn- 
ing sun. 

While  the  others  looked  at  the  ice,  Joe  borrowed 
the  field  glasses  and  began  to  sweep  the  mountains  for 
goats,  and  presently  found  one,  and  then  another, 
until  at  last  he  had  made  out  no  less  than  eleven  of 
the  animals.  Then  after  a  time  they  went  on  and 
entered  the  forest  on  the  upper  side  of  the  snowslide, 
where  the  going  was  open  and  dry,  and  a  little  farther 
on  crossed  a  large  stream  coming  out  of  a  side  canyon. 
Not  far  beyond  that  the  timber  grew  thinner,  and 
presently  they  rode  out  into  a  little  grassy  park. 

Just  as  they  passed  out  of  the  timber  they  heard 
a  noise  of  stones  rattling  in  front  of  them,  and  a 
moment  later  the  plunge  of  a  heavy  body  into  water, 
and  then  the  cracking  of  branches,  growing  fainter  and 
fainter. 

"  Ho,"  said  Hugh  to  Jack,  "  I  reckon  we  started  a 
moose  or  an  elk  here,  and  he's  going  up  the  mountain." 

They  rode  forward  and  in  a  very  few  moments 
reached  the  gravelly  borders  of  a  lake  which  was 
hemmed  in  on  three  sides  by  mountains.  Just  opposite 
them  and  seen  against  the  great  dark  precipice,  which 
partly  hid  the  glacier  from  their  view,  fell  a  white  line 
of  foam,  the  melting  water  of  the  great  ice  mass  which 
supplied  the  lake.  At  the  head  of  the  lake  was  a 
narrow  fringe  of  willows  and  then  an  open  meadow  of 


220        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

small  extent,  broken  on  one  side  by  a  low,  rocky,  pine- 
grown  knoll.  Behind  the  little  meadow  rose  a  thou- 
sand feet  of  black  precipice,  and  above  this  was  the 
glacier.  Behind  the  glacier  stood  a  jagged  wall  of 
rock,  but  on  either  side  to  the  right  and  the  left  rose 
abruptly  high  mountains,  which  seemed  to  terminate 
in  knife  edges  of  naked  rock.  The  scene  was  perhaps 
the  grandest  and  most  beautiful  that  Jack  had  ever 
beheld  near  at  hand.  It  made  him  feel  solemn,  while 
Hugh's  look  at  these  tremendous  heights  was  full  of 
respect  and  admiration." 

"  Son,"  said  Hugh,  "  those  mountains  there  seem 
to  threaten  one,  rather  than  to  ask  him  to  come  on. 
It's  a  job  to  get  up  there,  and  I  don't  feel  sure  that  we 
can  do  it  in  one  day.  If  we  go,  we've  got  to  start 
right  away,  and  we'd  better  leave  our  animals  here 
and  take  it  afoot  from  this  on." 

"  Yes,"  said  Jack,  "  we  can't  get  the  horses  any  fur- 
ther; and  we  may  as  well  picket  them  here." 

Joe  asked,  "  You  are  going  to  try  to  climb  up 
there?" 

"  Why,  yes,  Joe,"  replied  Jack.  "  I  want  to  get  on 
to  that  ice  up  there  if  I  can,  and  maybe  look  over  on 
to  the  other  side  of  the  mountains." 

"  Well,"  said  Joe,  "  I  don't  like  those  mountains 
much;  they  scare  me.  I'd  like  to  get  back  on  the 
prairie  where  the  sun  shines  warm  and  you  can  ride 
wherever  you  want  to." 

"  Oh,  come  on,"  said  Jack ;  "  if  you  get  up  there, 
you'll  be  where  no  Piegan  has  been  before.  Come 
along." 

"  Come  on,  Joe,"  said  Hugh.  "  You  may  as  well 
get  used  to  the  mountains  now  as  any  other  time." 


AN    ICE    RIVER  221 

The  three  tied  their  horses  to  pine  trees,  and  took 
off  the  bridles  so  that  they  could  feed.  Then  Hugh 
said,  "Now,  I  reckon  the  best  thing  for  us  to  do  is  to 
try  to  work  our  way  around  this  lake  and  climb  up 
that  place  where  the  water  is  tumbling  down.  It  looks 
like  a  bad  place,  but  it's  liable  to  be  a  good  deal  easier 
than  it  looks.  We  don't  know  anything  about  these 
mountainsides,  and  if  we  try  to  go  up  them  we're  liable 
to  take  a  whole  lot  of  time,  and  not  get  anywhere 
to-night.  Let's  go  right  around  this  lake,  crawl 
through  the  alder  brush  that  grows  at  its  edge,  and 
then  try  to  get  up  that  11  nine  where  the  water  comes 
down.     I  think  we  can  do  it." 

They  started  off  without  delay,  and  as  they  reached 
the  rough  shingle  at  the  edge  of  the  lake,  Hugh  pointed 
to  some  tracks  where  the  stones  and  sand  were  thrown 
up  and  said.  "  That's  what  we  heard  a  little  while  ago." 
On  the  large  stones  it  was  impossible  to  tell  just  what 
animal  had  made  the  tracks,  but  before  they  had  gone 
far  they  saw  where  it  had  come  down  to  the  lake  to 
drink,  and  in  the  grass  and  in  the  bare  soil  above  they 
found  the  tracks  of  a  good-sized  moose. 

The  work  of  making  their  way  over  the  talus  at  the 
lake  border  and  through  the  willows  and  alders  which 
grew  among  the  fallen  rocks  was  slow  and  difficult. 
The  stones  were  more  or  less  covered  with  moss  and 
care  was  needed  in  stepping,  lest  a  slip  should  send  one 
of  the  men  sliding  down  the  slope  and  into  the  cold 
waters  below. 

At  last,  however,  they  had  passed  through  the  alders 
and  reached  the  rocky  promontory  where  the  going 
was  open,  and  passing  over  this,  were  soon  in  the 
open  meadow  below  the  precipice,  where  they  took  a 


222         JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

moment's  breathing  spell,  then  started  on,  breasting 
a  steep  shoulder  which  gave  an  easy  ascent  for  a  couple 
of  hundred  feet  to  the  lowest  step  of  the  cliff  they 
wished  to  climb.  Soon  they  reached  the  ledge  and 
walked  along  it  until  they  came  to  the  very  bed  of  the 
falls,  and  here  began  the  serious  work  of  the  day. 

The  icy  torrent  which  for  ages  had  been  flowing 
over  this  precipice  had  cut  for  itself  a  deep  channel. 
On  one  side  or  the  other  of  this  channel  the  rock  had 
fallen  away  so  as  to  furnish  here  a  crevice,  there  a 
projecting  knob,  which  gave  hand  or  foothold  to  the 
climber.  At  times,  to  be  sure,  they  found  before  them 
a  smooth,  naked  cliff  which  could  not  be  climbed,  and 
then  search  must  be  made  along  its  face  for  a  place 
up  which  they  could  pass. 

They  climbed  slowly  and  carefully,  often  crossing 
the  stream  from  one  side  to  the  other,  clinging  to 
little  spruce  trees  that  grew  in  the  crevices  of  the  rock, 
thrusting  their  fingers  into  cracks  and  fitting  their  feet 
on  some  knob  or  projecting  splinter  that  would  give 
them  support.  Slowly  they  worked  their  way  upward, 
inch  by  inch,  foot  by  foot. 

Often  the  crossing  of  the  stream  was  nervous  work, 
for  the  boulders  which  lay  in  it  were  worn  smooth 
as  glass,  and  the  fine  mist  which  rose  from  the  falling 
waters  froze  to  the  rocks,  making  them  very  slippery. 
Sometimes  long  jumps  had  to  be  made  from  one  to 
another  of  these  rocks,  often  in  places  where  a  slip 
might  cause  a  bad  fall  on  rough  rocks  below. 

About  two-thirds  of  the  way  to  the  top  of  the  preci' 
pice  they  came  out  on  a  shelf  perhaps  a  hundred  feet 
wide,  which  was  almost  covered  by  high  heaped  rocks 
and    gravel — morainal    drift    brought    down    by    the 


AN    ICE    RIVER  223 

glacier  from  above.  This  was  composed  of  boulders 
and  stones  of  all  sizes,  from  masses  as  large  as  a  small 
house  to  grains  no  bigger  than  a  pin's  head. 

Here  they  stopped  to  rest,  and  Hugh,  with  his  back 
against  a  great  rock,  smoked  a  comforting  pipe. 

Close  at  hand  they  could  see  the  beauty  of  the  white, 
quivering  falls  rushing  down  the  cliff,  often  by  vertical 
plunges  of  a  hundred  feet  or  more,  or  down  steep  in- 
clines, and  in  one  place  they  had  worn  a  deep  fissure  in 
the  slate  and  shot  down  with  a  hissing  sound  thirty  or 
forty  feet  back  from  one  who  looked  in  on  them  from 
the  narrow  opening  of  the  crevice.  Everywhere  there 
was  spray  and  dampness,  and  Jack  was  reminded  in 
some  respects  of  the  high  mountain  torrents  which  he 
had  seen  during  his  famous  canoe  trip  in  British 
Columbia. 

From  here  the  going  was  much  easier.  The  preci- 
pice was  no  longer  vertical,  but  ascended  in  a  series  of 
huge  steps  to  the  level  of  the  glacier. 

There  they  began  to  see,  at  the  lower  border  of  the 
ice.  vast  quantities  of  drift  spread  far  and  wide,  and 
to  the  right  high  naked  ridges  lying  parallel  to  the 
course  of  the  ice  river.  The  crests  of  these  ridges  were 
sometimes  fifty  or  sixty  feet  above  the  surface  of  the 
ice  which  lay  against  them  and  from  a  quarter  to  a 
half  mile  in  length.  At  its  lower  border,  the  glacier 
had  melted  and  had  been  covered  with  stones,  so  that 
it  was  hard  to  say  just  where  the  ice  ended  and  the 
drift  which  it  had  carried  before  it  began. 

The  main  body  of  the  glacier  lay  in  the  cup-shaped 
depression  already  spoken  of,  but  high  up  on  the  rock 
wall  behind  it  and  to  the  left,  was  another  enormous 
mass   of   ice   looking  like   a   huge   snowball   thrown 


224        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

against  the  wall.  Its  size  was  very  great,  but  there 
was  no  means  of  estimating  it.  Hugh  thought  that 
the  lower  ice  was  two  miles  across,  and  nearly  a  mile 
deep. 

At  first  the  climbers  had  eyes  only  for  the  ice  and 
the  mountains  which  lay  in  front  of  them,  but  presently 
Joe  happened  to  look  behind  him  down  the  valley,  and 
there,  far,  far  away,  was  the  yellow  prairie  shining  in 
the  warm  sunshine.  Joe  called  the  attention  of  the 
others  to  this,  saying,  "  Don't  it  look  nice  down 
there?" 

The  climb  had  taken  much  less  time  than  had  been 
anticipated,  not  that  the  height  to  which  they  had 
ascended  had  been  less  than  they  had  thought,  but 
because  the  way  had  been  very  direct  and  they  had 
wasted  little  time  in  resting  or  loitering. 

After  their  first  view,  Hugh  led  the  way  to  a  little 
grassy  spot  just  outside  of  one  of  the  moraines  and, 
sitting  down  in  a  sheltered  spot,  said,  "  Let's  sit  here 
and  smoke  a  pipe,  and  then  get  up  as  high  as  we  can 
and  see  the  whole  show ;  and  then  we  can  turn  around 
and  go  back."  As  they  sat  there  they  had  a  fine  view 
of  the  valley  below  them. 

"  Isn't  it  a  fine  thing,  Hugh,"  said  Jack,  "  to  get  up 
here  and  see  just  how  this  glacier  is  acting?  Don't 
you  remember  how  Mr.  Fannin  explained  glaciers  to 
us ;  how  simple  and  easy  he  made  it  to  understand  how 
they  acted  ?  I  don't  think  I  shall  ever  forget  the  way 
he  talked  about  them,  and  I  don't  think  I  shall  ever  see 
one  without  looking  for  the  things  that  he  explained 
to  us." 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  that's  so,  he  sure  did  make 
things  plain,  and  I  don't  wonder  that  you  remember 


AN    ICE    RIVER  225 

what  he  said.  I  was  thinking  of  him  when  we  got  up 
here,  but  one  of  the  things  that  seems  queerest  to  me 
about  this  ice  is  that  it's  all  made  of  snow.  He  said  it 
was,  and  now  we  can  see  for  ourselves  that  it  is.  I 
was  looking  as  we  came  along,  and  you  can  see  places 
just  at  the  edges  of  the  snow  where  it  seems  to  be 
changing  to  ice.  I  guess  the  snow  just  gets  solider 
and  solider,  and  then  gets  water  soaked  and  makes  real 
ice." 

"  Of  course,"  said  Jack,  "  that  must  be  it.  When  I 
was  a  small  boy  I  used  to  make  snow  forts  and  defend 
them  with  snowballs,  and  sometimes  the  fellows  would 
make  the  snowballs  when  the  weather  was  warm  and 
the  sn<»\v  was  melting,  and  if  it  froze  that  night,  they 
would  be  just  solid  ice.  To  get  hit  with  one  of  those 
ice  balls  was  a  good  deal  like  getting  hit  with  a  stone." 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  expect  if  no  more  snow  fell 
up  here  this  piece  of  ice  would  just  melt  away  and 
leave  nothing  but  the  hole  that  it's  laying  in — just  a 
sort  of  a  basin  in  the  side  of  the  mountain." 

"  Yes,"  said  Jack,  "  I  guess  that's  so.  I  think  that's 
what  Mr.  Fannin  told  us;  that  a  glacier  was  a  glacier, 
because  it  was  constantly  being  added  to  at  its  upper 
end,  and  the  weight  of  the  snow  and  ice  was  pushing 
it  along  over  the  mountainside.  I  take  it  that  a  snow- 
bank might  be  ice  at  the  bottom,  perhaps,  but  that  if  it 
doesn't  move  it  isn't  a  glacier." 

"Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "I  reckon  that's  so.  I  took 
notice  of  another  thing,"  he  went  on,  "  as  we  were 
coming  along.  Did  you  see  how  this  ice  seems  to  be 
in  layers?  Some  of  'em  are  half  an  inch  thick  and 
some  of  'em  an  inch,  and  there  seems  to  be  a  thin  crust 
of  dirt  that  separates  one  layer  from  another," 


226        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

"  Yes,"  said  Jack,  "  I  noticed  that,  and  I  was  won- 
dering how  it  could  happen,  or  what  it  meant." 

"  Well,  I  was  figuring  on  that  very  thing,"  said 
Hugh,  "  and  it  seemed  to  me  that  these  little  layers  of 
dirt  must  be  the  dust  and  dirt  blown  off  the  mountain- 
side by  the  wind  after  each  fall  of  snow." 

"  Well,  Hugh,"  said  Jack,  "  that  seems  a  natural 
explanation.  "  We  all  know  how  the  wind  is  always 
blowing  up  here,  and  we  all  know  that  old  snow  is 
always  dusty.     I  guess  you're  right." 

By  this  time  Hugh's  pipe  was  smoked  out,  and  he  rose 
to  his  feet  and  said,  "  Come  on,  we've  got  to  stretch 
our  legs  some  more  and  see  if  we  can  go  up  to  the 
ridge.  There  looks  to  be  a  low  place  up  ahead  of  us, 
and  maybe  if  we  can  get  up  there  we  can  see  over  the 
range.  Look  out  for  yourselves  when  you  are  walk- 
ing over  this  smooth  ice.  If  a  man  slips  on  one  of 
these  steep  places,  he's  liable  to  go  a  long  way  before 
stopping." 

The  caution  was  a  wise  one,  and  for  some  distance 
they  walked  along  carefully,  keeping  either  on  the 
moraine  or  on  the  very  edge  of  the  ice,  or  choosing  a 
path  where  the  snow  was  old  and  hard  and  gave  a  firm 
footing. 

At  one  point,  however,  Joe  tried  to  make  a  short 
cut  by  climbing  over  some  old  snow  which  was  quite 
steep.  Before  he  had  gone  very  far  the  others  saw 
him  begin  to  dig  his  feet  into  the  hard  snow  as  if  un- 
certain of  his  footing,  then  he  slipped,  recovered  him- 
self, stood  for  an  instant  as  if  doubtful  whether  to  go 
backward  or  forward,  took  another  step  and  then  his 
feet  flew  out  from  under  him  and  he  began  to  slide 
down  the  slope.     It  looked  very  funny  to  see  him  flying 


AN    ICE    RIVER  227 

over  the  snow,  but  Hugh  did  not  laugh,  for  he  feared 
that  possibly  the  boy  might  go  on  until  he  brought  up 
against  rough  rocks  below.  Luckily  nothing  of  this 
kind  happened,  and  after  going  about  a  hundred  yards 
at  a  high  rate  of  speed,  Joe  ran  into  some  soft  snow 
and  his  momentum  was  checked.  He  stopped,  rose 
to  his  feet,  and  making  his  way  cautiously  back  to  the 
edge  of  the  rocks,  took  the  safe  but  longer  road  that 
his  companions  had  followed. 

Hugh  and  Jack  waited  until  he  had  come  up,  and 
then  Hugh,  shaking  his  head,  said  to  him,  "  That 
wasn't  very  smart,  Joe.  You'd  better  not  try  any 
more  experiments  of  that  kind ;  it's  dangerous.  A 
man  may  slip  any  time  on  one  of  these  smooth  icy 
slopes,  and  if  he  does  he  never  can  tell  where  he'll  stop. 
You  might  have  slid  down  there  and  brought  up 
against  the  rocks,  and  broken  some  bones  or  killed 
yourself,  and  then  we'd  have  had  a  hard  time  packing 
you  down  this  hill  and  taking  you  into  the  agency. 
Then,  besides  that,  sometimes  these  big  pieces  of  ice 
are  all  cracked  and  full  of  holes,  and  if  anyone  should 
slip  into  one  of  those  he  might  go  down  to  the  bottom 
and  get  killed  by  the  fall  on  the  rocks  below,  or  if  he 
stuck  somewhere  half  way  down  he'd  freeze  to  death 
before  he  could  be  hauled  out.  One  thing  we'll  have 
to  do  after  this  when  we're  climbing  in  bad  places; 
that  is,  to  bring  along  a  couple  of  sling  ropes  and  tie 
ourselves  together.  It  isn't  likely  that  all  three  of  us 
will  slip  and  fall  at  the  same  time,  and  if  only  one  slips, 
the  other  two  can  haul  him  out." 

"  That's  a  mighty  good  idea,"  said  Jack ;  "  I  was 
scared  when  I  saw  Joe  sliding  down  that  ice.  I  re- 
member reading  about  people  climbing  the  mountains 


228        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

in  Switzerland  where  they  carry  ice  axes.  They're 
sort  of  like  adzes,  with  long  straight  handles  and  a 
spike  in  the  end  of  the  handle,  and  are  used  for  cutting 
steps  in  the  ice  or  hard  snow.  The  people  who  are 
climbing  tie  themselves  together  with  ropes  and  go 
mighty  slowly  and  carefully,  so  that  there  is  no  danger 
of  more  than  one  man  slipping  at  the  same  time. 
They  go  along  one  by  one,  and  when  one  man  is  mov- 
ing— I  mean,  of  course,  in  bad  places — the  others  all 
stand  still  and  fasten  their  axes  in  the  ice  or  hang  on 
to  the  rope,  so  that  if  he  does  slip,  there's  no  trouble 
about  catching  him.  I  remember  reading  that  most 
of  the  accidents  happen  where  people  have  so  much 
confidence  in  themselves  that  they  are  not  willing  to 
be  roped  together,  and  some  man  makes  a  blunder  and 
falls  and  the  others  just  have  to  stand  and  look  at 
him." 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  if  we're  going  to  do  much 
climbing  around  here,  we  ought  to  fix  ourselves  out  in 
some  such  way  as  that.  I  tell  you  I'm  too  old  myself 
to  try  any  of  these  experiments. 

"  Come  on,  now,"  he  continued,  as  he  turned  and 
started  up  the  ridge,  "  let's  get  up  here  to  a  sheltered 
place  and  then  we  can  sit  down  and  eat  a  bite.  I  put 
some  bread  and  bacon  in  my  pocket  this  morning  when 
we  started,  and  we  may  as  well  eat  and  smoke  a  pipe 
before  we  go  on." 


CHAPTER    XVII 

A  FAT  BIGHORN 

In  a  sheltered  spot  at  the  foot  of  a  great  morainal 
ridge  the  three  climbers  sat  down  and  ate  their  lunch. 
The  air  was  warm  and  the  sun  bright,  but  every  now 
and  then  a  drift  of  breeze  came  down  to  them  which 
felt  cool,  for  they  had  been  working  hard  and  their 
garments  were  damp  with  perspiration.  Hugh  smoked 
his  pipe,  and  then  presently  they  rose  and  started  to 
clamber  further  up  the  glacier.  Presently  they  came 
upon  the  tracks  of  some  large  animals,  either  sheep  or 
goats,  which  had  passed  over  the  moraine  not  long 
before.  The  surface  of  the  ground  was  so  hard  that 
they  could  not  be  sure  what  these  animals  were,  but 
looking  over  the  snow-covered  ice  before  them,  they 
could  see  the  tracks  passing  up  over  it,  and  at  last  turn- 
ing up  toward  the  peaks  behind  a  rocky  point  which 
ran  out  from  the  mountainside.  Hugh  followed  the 
tracks  as  far  as  the  snow,  and  when  they  reached  its 
unbroken  surface  they  could  see  that  the  tracks  were 
fresh,  and  before  long  Hugh  turned  to  Jack  and  said, 
"  They're  sheep.     A  couple  of  good  rams,  I  guess." 

After  they  had  come  quite  near  the  rocky  point 
behind  which  the  tracks  led,  Joe,  who  was  a  little  to 
one  side,  suddenly  stopped,  and  called  out :  "  Look  at 
that  ram."  From  where  they  stood,  neither  Hugh 
nor  Jack  could  see  any  living  thing,  but  Jack  stepped 
over  toward  Joe,  and  as  he  did  so  there  came  into  his 

229 


23o         JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

view  a  splendid  bighorn,   outlined  against  the  snow 
so  that  every  detail  of  his  form  could  be  seen. 

The  animal's  head  was  up,  and  he  gazed  in  curiosity 
rather  than  alarm  at  the  three  strange  creatures  that  he 
saw  below  him. 

Jack  had  loaded  his  rifle  at  Joe's  exclamation  and 
now  asked,  "  How  far  off  is  he,  Hugh  ?  " 

"  About  two  hundred  yards,  I  reckon,"  said  Hugh. 
"  Draw  a  coarse  sight  and  shoot  at  his  neck." 

The  animal  was  standing  half  quartering  toward 
them  in  such  a  position  that  his  head  and  neck  were  in 
line  with  his  shoulders,  and  a  ball  through  the  shoul- 
der would  pierce  either  heart  or  lungs.  Jack  did  not 
raise  his  sights,  but  following  Hugh's  suggestion  fired 
at  the  animal's  neck,  just  below  the  throat,  so  as  to 
allow  for  any  drop  of  the  ball.  For  an  instant  the 
smoke  hung,  and  when  Jack  could  see  through  it,  the 
animal  had  disappeared. 

"Did  anyone  see  where  the  ball  struck?"  asked 
Jack. 

"  Not  I,"  said  Hugh. 

"  I  didn't  either,"  said  Joe,  "  but  I  thought  he 
turned  in  an  awkward  kind  of  a  way,  as  though  he 
were  hurt." 

"  I  have  an  idea  I  heard  the  ball  strike,"  said  Hugh. 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  let's  go  up  there  anyhow.  He 
was  certainly  a  nice  ram,  and  I'd  like  to  get  him." 

They  hurried  up  the  slope,  Hugh  and  Joe  ahead, 
while  Jack  toiled  behind.  Presently  they  heard  a 
cheerful  shout  from  Hugh,  "  Come  on,  son,  there's 
blood  on  the  snow,  and  lots  of  it." 

Sure  enough,  when  Jack  got  up  to  where  the  slope 
was  less  steep  he  could  see,  even  at  a  distance,  the  pu~r 


, — — -_ 


*i 


fxf^ 


'JACK    DID     NOT    RAISE     HIS     SIGHTS,    BUT    FOLLOWING     HUGH  S     SUG- 
GESTION   FIRED    AT    THE    ANIMAL'S     NECK." — Page    230 


A    FAT    BIGHORN  231 

white  mantle  of  snow  splashed  with  great  dark 
blotches. 

The  trail  seemed  likely  to  be  a  plain  one,  and  the 
men  hurried  along  over  the  snow,  up  the  hill.  Pres- 
ently they  could  see  that  the  ram  was  staggering, 
for  his  tracks  no  longer  went  directly  ahead,  but  wav- 
ered from  side  to  side.  Then  they  passed  on  to  the 
rocks  and  could  not  see  the  trail  so  easily,  but  far- 
ther ahead  came  to  another  snow  bank  where  there  was 
a  broad  smear  of  blood,  showing  apparently  that  the 
animal  had  fallen  on  its  side  and  slipped  along  over  the 
snow. 

Hugh  and  Joe  ran  round  a  point  of  awarfed  spruces, 
but  Jack,  in  his  eagerness  to  cut  off  a  corner,  attempted 
to  go  through  the  little  trees,  and  found  himself  in 
drifted  snow  up  to  his  waist  and  his  legs  held  by  the 
branches  of  the  spruces.  For  a  moment  or  two  he 
could  hear  the  clatter  of  the  others  running  over  the 
rocks,  and  a  word  or  two  of  their  talk,  but  by  the  time 
he  had  got  out  on  to  the  rocks,  his  companions  were 
far  ahead  of  him.  As  they  saw  him  coming,  however, 
they  sat  down  to  wait  for  him. 

He  followed  the  blood  trail,  and  wnen  he  came  up 
he,  too,  sat  down. 

"  Have  you  seen  anything  of  him  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  No,"  said  Hugh,  "  but  he's  going  down  hill,  bleed- 
ing, as  you  see,  and  falling  down  every  little  while. 
We'll  find  him  before  long." 

"  All  right,"  said  Jack,  "  he's  our  meat,  I  guess. 
If  he  keeps  on  bleeding  like  this  he  can't  go  very  far. 
We  can't  go  down  there  after  him  and  then  come  back 
here,  and  I  want  to  go  up  and  look  if  we  can't  see 
across  the  range.     How  do  you  feel,  Hugh,  do  you 


232         JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

want  to  go  down  and  get  the  sheep,  or  shall  we  leave 
him  there  and  all  go  up  and  look  over  the  range  and 
then  go  back  ?  " 

"  Why,"  said  Hugh,  "  I'd  better  go  down  and 
butcher  him,  and  you  and  Joe  can  go  up  to  the  top  of 
the  rocks  here  and  see  what  you  can  see  on  the  other 
side.  It  isn't  far.  That  low  place,  just  above  where 
the  sheep  stood  when  you  shot,  is  the  point  to  make 
for,  and  I  reckon  you  can  see  all  you  want  to  from 
there.  Then  you  come  back,  and  come  down  to  me. 
We've  got  quite  a  job  to  get  that  sheep  into  camp 
to-night.  The  fact  is,  I  don't  believe  we  can  do  it. 
It's  too  large  for  the  three  of  us  to  carry  down  in 
one  trip." 

Jack  and  Joe  went  back  in  the  direction  that  Hugh 
had  suggested,  and  keeping  well  up  the  hill,  soon  found 
themselves  close  to  a  little  saddle,  where  one  of  the  side 
arms  of  the  glacier  started.  It  was  an  easy  matter  to 
climb  up  here  and  presently  they  stood  on  the  crest  of 
the  Continental  Divide,  looking  over  a  broad  valley 
in  which  nothing  was  to  be  seen  except  rocks  and 
stunted  pine  trees,  and  dimly  through  the  thick,  hazy 
atmosphere  a  distant  lake  and  some  high,  snow-cov- 
ered mountain  crests. 

"  Do  you  know  anything  about  this  country,  Joe?  " 
asked  Jack. 

"  No,"  said  Joe,  "  not  much.  I  reckon  that  big 
lake  we  see  over  there  may  be  Lake  McDonald,  but  I 
don't  know  these  mountains,  nor  this  country  close  to 
us." 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  I  reckon  Hugh  will  know 
something  about  it  when  we  tell  him  what  we've  seen. 
Now  let  us  go  back  on  the  ice,  and  then  get  down  to 


A    FAT    BIGHORN  233 

him.  It  looks  as  if  we  were  going  to  have  bad 
weather." 

The  sky  had  become  overcast,  and  the  wind  began 
to  moan  among  the  peaks.  It  looked  like  a  snow- 
storm. 

They  walked  down  the  glacier,  keeping  as  nearly 
as  possible  on  its  comb,  fir  they  did  not  wish  to  slip, 
as  Joe  had  done  in  the  morning. 

After  they  had  looked  down  the  valley  of  Swift 
Current  into  the  flat  at  the  foot  of  lower  St.  Mary's 
Lake  and  taken  a  last  look  over  the  glacier,  they  turned 
aside  and,  working  out  to  the  rocks,  began  to  make 
their  way  down  to  Hugh. 

At  a  little  distance  the  side  of  the  mountain  looked 
absolutely  vertical,  and  it  did  not  seem  possible  that 
man,  nor  even  sheep,  could  have  passed  along  it,  but 
as  they  went  on  they  found  no  difficulty  in  making 
their  way,  and  recognized  one  of  the  deceptions  of 
these  grand  and  mysterious  hills.  Joe,  when  they  first 
started  down,  had  been  not  a  little  alarmed,  and  said, 
"  I'm  afraid  we  never  will  see  White  Bull  again.  He 
could  not  have  gone  down  such  a  place  as  this;  he 
must  have  fallen  and  been  killed." 

"  Nonsense,"  said  Jack,  "  of  course  he  went  down 
all  right,  and  we  are  going  to  follow  him  down.  You'll 
see  it  won't  be  bad  as  we  go  on." 

Before  long  they  came  to  the  blood  trail  of  the 
sheep,  and  following  that  kept  on  their  way  until  they 
saw  Hugh  standing  by  a  fire  in  a  little  valley  below 
them. 

"  Hurrah !  "  said  Jack,  "  Hugh  is  cooking  meat. 
I'm  mighty  glad,  for  I  feel  hungry." 

When  they  had  worked  their  way  down  to  within 


234        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

a  few  hundred  yards  of  him,  zigzagging  this  way 
and  that  over  the  steep  ledges,  Hugh  saw  them  and 
waved  his  hand,  and  presently  wnen  they  got  down 
within  speaking  distance,  he  called  out,  "  Well,  son, 
you  killed  the  best  piece  of  meat  in  the  mountains." 

"  Good,"  said  Jack,  "  I  hope  you  have  put  some  of 
it  on  the  fire." 

"  That's  what  the  fire  is  there  for,"  said  Hugh. 
"  Come  on  down." 

The  boys  at  length  reached  a  point  about  fifty  feet 
above  Hugh,  and  then  had  to  go  off  to  one  side  to  find 
a  way  down  the  cliff.  When  they  had  come  near  the 
fire,  however,  Hugh  showed  them  the  ram  lying  at  the 
edge  of  the  snow  bank  from  which  he  had  drawn  him. 

"  You  see,"  said  Hugh,  "  when  I  got  almost  up  to 
him,  he  was  lying  on  the  rocks  right  at  the  top  of  this 
cliff  with  his  head  down  and  pretty  nearly  dead;  but 
when  I  got  quite  close  to  him  he  heard  me  walking  and 
got  on  his  feet  again  and  just  walked  over  the  cliff 
and  fell  into  this  snow  bank  down  here.  When  I  got 
to  him  he  was  dead.     Nice  ram,  isn't  he  ?  " 

Indeed,  he  was  a  beauty ;  perhaps  six  or  seven  years 
old,  with  horns  that  were  not  very  large,  but  perfectly 
symmetrical  and  unbroken.  His  coat  was  thick, 
smooth  and  glossy,  dark  brown  and  with  a  white  rump 
patch.  Short  of  limb,  strong  of  back,  sturdy  and 
stout,  plump  and  round  as  a  bull  elk  in  early  Septem- 
ber, he  made  a  picture  such  as  even  the  successful 
hunter  does  not  see  every  day. 

It  was  evident  to  all  that  the  whole  animal  could 
not  be  taken  in  that  night,  and  that  another  trip  must 
be  made  to  bring  in  the  meat.  The  best  that  could  be 
done  would  be  to  carry  down  the  head,  which  Jack 


A    FAT    BIGHORX  235 

wanted  to  save,  and  a  couple  of  light  loads  of  the  meat, 
and  then  the  next  day  they  could  return  and  bring  in 
the  rest.  However,  they  sat  down  for  a  little  while 
and  feasted  on  some  of  the  delicious  ribs  cut  from  the 
animal.  Then,  taking  the  head  and  the  two  shoulders, 
they  set  out  for  camp.  Hugh  was  inclined  to  think 
that  by  keeping  along  the  mountain,  he  might  reach 
camp  by  a  route  considerably  easier  than  that  which 
they  had  taken  in  coming  up,  though,  of  course,  it 
would  be  much  longer.  He  also  declared  that  he 
thought  it  possible  that  they  might  be  able  to  pick  out 
a  trail  by  which  they  could  bring  up  a  pack  horse  to 
carry  down  the  rest  of  the  meat. 

As  soon  as  they  had  finished  eating  they  started 
down  along  the  mountainside,  keeping  on  the  ledges 
where  the  walking  was  good,  and  descending  by 
easy  steps  from  one  ledge  to  another.  They  had 
gone  but  a  short  distance  when  they  passed  a  ravine 
in  which  lay  a  long  snow  bank  hollow  beneath.  Into 
this  snow  cave  Hugh  went  to  look  for  a  drink  of  wrater 
and  presently  called  to  the  boys,  telling  them  to  come 
in  to  him. 

They  found  themselves  in  a  most  beautiful  ice  grotto. 
The  snow  bank  was  an  old  one  and  the  rushing  waters 
of  spring  had  tunneled  under  it,  while  it  melted  from 
above,  so  that  a  heavy  roof  of  blue  ice  stretched  across 
the  ravine  from  side  to  side.  The  grotto  was  eight  or 
ten  feet  from  floor  to  roof,  thirty  feet  wide  and  per- 
haps a  hundred  long.  A  drift  of  snow  which  had 
blown  in  from  an  opening  at  its  upper  end,  lay  in  the 
bottom  of  the  ravine.  The  roof  seemed  not  very  thick 
and  admitted  the  light  freely.  It  was  a  beautiful  sky 
blue  and  reminded  Jack  vaguely  of  some  blue  grotto 


236        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

in  Italy  of  which  he  had  read  and  had  often  heard 
his  mother  talk. 

The  sun  was  getting  lower  and  lower  as  the  three 
hurried  along  the  mountain.  In  most  places  it  was 
easy  going,  and  in  the  snow  banks,  which  they  were 
constantly  crossing,  fresh  tracks  of  goats  were  seen, 
but  the  travelers  paid  no  attention  to  these  and  kept 
on  their  way  as  fast  as  possible. 

Long  before  they  had  reached  the  level  of  the  valley 
the  sun  had  set,  but  there  was  light  enough  for  them 
to  go  a  little  way  down  the  stream  and  then  cross  on 
a  log-jam  which  brought  them  to  the  other  side  of  the 
stream.  Here  they  mounted  their  horses,  and  in  a 
short  time  were  standing  by  their  tent. 

Presently,  when  the  coffee-pot  was  bubbling  and 
some  fat  sheep  meat  sputtering  in  the  pan,  when  the 
horses  had  been  looked  after  and  the  day's  labor  was 
over,  it  was  pleasant  to  talk  of  the  wonderful  things 
that  they  had  seen  since  sunrise. 

The  next  morning  the  boys  saddled  a  pack  horse, 
and  crossing  the  little  stream  which  pours  out  of  the 
lake,  Hugh,  Jack  and  Joe  climbed  the  mountainside, 
dragging  the  pack  animal  behind  them. 

After  they  had  once  got  through  the  thick  brush 
it  was  not  difficult  to  lead  the  horse  along  the  ledges, 
almost  to  the  sheep's  carcass.  They  did  at  last  come  to 
a  place  where  the  horse  could  not  get  up,  and  though 
by  taking  half  a  day's  time  they  could  probably  have 
found  a  way  to  take  him  to  the  meat,  it  seemed  simpler 
and  shorter  to  leave  him  where  he  was  and  to  carry 
the  meat  to  him. 

"  Now,"  said  Hugh,  as  they  were  eating  their 
luncheon,  "  we've  got  a  little  idea  of  this  fork  of  the 


A    FAT    BIGHORN  237 

stream,  what  do  you  say  to  turning  around  now  and 
going  back  to  the  head  of  St.  Mary's  River,  where  we 
came  from?  I  believe  that  by  this  time  the  snow  has 
melted  some  and  we  will  find  feed  for  the  horses,  so 
that  we  can  stop  there  for  a  while,  and  do  a  little 
hunting  and  maybe  climb  the  mountains  that  you've 
been  talking  about.     What  do  you  say?" 

"  What  do  you  say,  Joe?  "  asked  Jack. 

"  Why,"  said  Joe,  "  I'm  ready  to  go  'most  any- 
where or  do  'most  anything.  I  think  I  like  the  country 
at  the  head  of  the  lake,  where  the  bear  tore  down  the 
tent,  better  than  I  do  here." 

"Well,  Hugh,"  said  Jack,  "that's  the  way  I  feel. 
Of  course,  it  is  nice  here  and  interesting,  and  we  could 
spend  a  lot  of  time  and  see  a  great  many  things ;  but  it 
seems  to  me  that  the  country  <:t  the  head  of  St.  Mary's 
River  is  bigger  and  more  interesting  than  this." 

"  All  right,"  said  Hugh,  "  let's  go  if  you  say  so, 
and  if  we're  going,  why  not  pack  up  and  roll  now. 
We  ought  to  be  able  to  get  down  nearly  to  the  mouth 
of  Swift  Current  before  dark.  Maybe  we  can  even 
camp  in  the  big  flat  of  the  St.  Mary's  River.  If  you 
boys  want  to  start,  round  up  your  horses  and  I'll  be 
making  up  the  packs,  and  we'll  move  mighty  quick." 

By  the  time  the  horses  had  been  brought  in  and  sad- 
dled, Hugh  had  his  packs  made  up,  and  it  took  but  a 
few  minutes  to  lash  the  loads,  and  soon  the  train  was 
moving  off  down  the  valley. 

As  they  crossed  the  snowslide,  Jack  turned  aside 
and  looked  back  toward  the  great  mountain  behind 
them  and  wondered  again  at  the  mighty  mass  of  ice 
that  lay  in  its  lap.  It  hardly  seemed  to  him  possible 
that  he  had  been  up  walking  on  that  ice,  and  on  those 


238        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

rocks  that  now  seemed  so  far  away  and  so  difficult 
of  access. 

He  had  but  little  time,  however,  to  think  about  this, 
and,  turning  his  horse,  hurried  on  after  the  others, 
who  were  just  entering  the  timber. 

They  had  gone  but  a  little  way,  when  Hugh  stopped 
his  horse,  and  all  the  others  came  to  a  standstill.  He 
called  back  to  Jack,  "  Son,  have  you  got  a  piece  of 
string  in  your  pocket?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Jack,  fishing  it  out,  "  I  have,  but  it's 
only  about  three  feet  long." 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  get  off  your  horse  and  come 
up  here." 

When  Jack  reached  Hugh's  side,  Hugh  pointed  to 
the  ground  a  few  feet  from  him,  and  there,  standing 
close  together,  were  three  beautiful  Franklin  grouse, 
while  on  a  little  spruce  tree,  two  or  three  feet  above  the 
others,  sat  a  fourth  bird. 

"  Now,  son,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  reckon  youVe  heard  me 
talk  about  the  way  these  fool  hens  are  gentle,  and  how 
you  can  kill  them  with  a  rock  or  sometimes  with  a 
club,  or  can  even  slip  a  noose  over  the  head  of  one,  as 
he  sits  on  a  branch  in  front  of  you.  Do  you  want  to 
try  and  catch  one  ?  " 

"  Why,  yes,  Hugh,"  said  Jack,  "  I'd  like  to  do  that. 
I  don't  want  to  kill  one  particularly,  because  we've  got 
what  meat  we  need,  but  I'd  like  to  catch  one." 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  you  can,  and  if  you  get  it  in 
your  hands  quickly  enough,  you  can  take  off  the  string 
and  let  it  go.  There's  a  straight  dead  branch  over 
there.  Just  make  a  noose  of  your  string,  and  then  tie 
the  string  to  the  end  of  that  branch,  leaving  about  a 
foot  hanging  down  from  the  branch,  and  try  it." 


A    FAT    BIGHORN  239 

Jack  arranged  his  snare,  tying  it  to  the  end  of  a 
straight  branch  about  six  feet  long,  and  then  advanced 
very  slowly  toward  the  grouse. 

They  paid  no  attention  to  him  until  he  was  within 
three  or  four  yards,  and  then  one  of  those  on  the 
ground  appeared  to  notice  him  and  stretched  out  its 
neck  to  look  at  him.  Jack  stood  still  and  in  a  few  sec- 
onds the  bird  seemed  satisfied  and  resumed  its  huddled- 
up  position.  Then  Jack  went  on,  very  slowly,  and 
when  he  had  come  within  six  or  seven  feet  of  the  bird 
he  held  his  stick  before  him  and  tried  to  pass  the  noose 
over  the  bird's  head.  This  was  not  easy  to  do,  and 
two  or  three  times  the  noose  struck  the  side  of  the 
bird's  head  without  passing  over  it,  yet  the  grouse 
merely  moved  to  one  side  to  avoid  the  string.  Pres- 
ently, in  making  this  movement,  the  bird  itself  passed 
its  head  through  the  noose,  and  Jack,  lowering  the 
point  of  the  stick,  pulled  it  toward  him,  drew  the  bird 
off  the  branch,  and  brought  it  flapping  furiously  to 
his  feet.  He  at  once  seized  it  and,  loosening  the 
noose,  took  it  from  the  bird's  head.  Then  he 
smoothed  the  bird's  feathers  and  in  a  moment  or  two 
it  seemed  to  lose  all  fear. 

"Isn't  it  a  beautful  bird,  Hugh?"  he  said,  as  he 
held  it  up  for  Hugh's  inspection. 

"  Yes/'  said  Hugh,  "they  certainly  are  right  pretty 
little  birds.  It's  a  pity  they  don't  know  better  how 
to  take  care  of  themselves,  for  everything  that  runs 
across  them  can  kill  them." 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  I'm  glad  I  caught  this  little 
fellow,  but  I'm  mighty  glad  I  didn't  kill  him,  and  now 
I'm  going  to  turn  him  loose." 

He  walked  over  to  the  other  birds  and  put  the  grouse 


24o        JACK,   THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

that  he  held  gently  on  the  ground  and  then  stood  up. 
The  grouse  raised  itself  to  its  full  height  and  stretched 
up  its  neck,  looking  at  him  with  an  air  of  great  curi- 
osity. Then,  seemingly  satisfied,  it  lowered  its  head 
and  with  very  deliberate  steps  walked  over  toward  its 
fellows,  while  Jack  remounted  his  horse,  and  the  three 
travelers  started  on. 

An  hour  later  they  were  in  the  main  valley  of  Swift 
Current  and  marching  at  a  good  gait  down  the  trail. 

Quite  a  long  time  before  sunset  they  crossed  Boulder 
Creek,  and  a  little  later  came  out  on  the  wide  flat  below 
the  lower  lake.  Over  by  the  river  were  some  white 
lodges  and  a  bunch  of  horses  feeding,  and  Hugh  said, 
"  I  believe  our  friends,  the  Kootenays,  are  still  camped 
here.  Let's  go  over  and  camp  with  them.  I'd  rather 
be  right  among  them  than  at  a  little  distance.  The 
dogs  and  children  won't  trouble  us  so  much  in  the  camp 
as  they  would  if  we  were  close  to  it." 

They  found  in  the  camp  all  their  acquaintances  of  a 
week  or  two  before.  Evidently  the  hunting  had  been 
good,  for  there  were  scaffolds  covered  with  drying 
meat,  and  many  hides  pegged  upon  the  ground. 

While  the  white  men  were  making  camp,  some  of 
their  acquaintances  came  up  and  spoke  to  them,  and  a 
little  later  old  Back  In  Sight,  the  chief,  paid  them  a 
call,  and  on  Hugh's  invitation  sat  down  and  ate  with 
them. 

The  Indians  said  they  were  soon  going  north  and 
west  to  their  own  country.  The  hunting  had  been 
good,  and  they  had  killed  many  beaver.  Now  the  fur 
was  no  longer  at  its  best  and  they  did  not  wish  to  trap 
any  more  this  season. 

Just  before  dusk  something  occurred  that  immensely 


A    FAT    BIGHORN  241 

interested  Jack.  A  man  clad  in  a  blanket  and  a  bat- 
tered felt  hat  walked  through  the  camp  haranguing 
the  people,  who  gathered  in  the  middle  of  the  small 
space  within  the  lodges.  Standing  in  the  middle  of 
the  group,  this  man  repeated  what  were  evidently 
prayers.  Then  to  Jack's  intense  astonishment  he 
crossed  himself;  rang  a  little  bell,  offered  up  another 
prayer  and  crossed  himself  again,  while  all  the  people 
followed  his  example.  This  went  on  for  some  little 
time  until,  finally,  at  the  end  of  one  prayer,  followed 
by  the  tinkle  of  the  bell,  the  people  dispersed. 

"  Say,  Hugh,"  said  Jack,  "  I  wish  you'd  ask  that 
Indian  that  you  can  talk  to  what  this  means.  It  looks 
to  me  like  some  sort  of  a  church  service." 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  wouldn't  be  surprised  a 
mite.  You  know  lots  of  these  Indians,  especially  on 
the  west  side  of  the  mountains  and  to  the  north,  be- 
lieve in  the  Catholic  religion,  and  I  wouldn't  be  sur- 
prised if  these  people  do,  or  think  they  do.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  I  believe  they  worship  the  sun,  but  maybe 
they  think  they're  Christians.  Wait  until  I  talk  a  little 
bit  with  this  man  that  speaks  some  Chinook  and 
Piegan." 

Hugh  had  quite  a  long  talk  with  the  Kootenay,  then 
turned  to  Jack  and  said,  "  Now,  son,  that's  a  mighty 
queer  thing  that  we've  seen.  This  man  says  that  what 
we  saw  them  doing  was  worshiping,  and  that  this 
worship  was  taught  their  fathers  by  a  Black  Robe  a 
good  many  years  ago.  Their  fathers  taught  them 
how  to  worship  in  this  way,  but  they  themselves  don't 
know  exactly  what  it  means ;  all  they  know  is  that  they 
are  praying  to  the  Black  Robe's  God.  This  Black 
Robe  taught  their  fathers  to  say  these  prayers,  to  ring 


242        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

this  bell  and  make  these  motions,  touching  themselves 
on  four  places  on  their  bodies.  They  try  to  do  this 
just  as  their  fathers  taught  them." 

Jack  clapped  his  hands  in  astonishment.  "  That  is 
certainly  a  most  extraordinary  thing;  a  real  case  of 
survival.  I  guess  if  I  tell  people  back  East  about  this 
they  will  laugh  at  me,  and  say  I'm  crazy." 

"  I  reckon,  son,  if  you  tell  them  all  the  things  you 
have  seen  out  in  this  country  that  if  they  don't  call 
you  crazy  they'll  at  least  call  you  a  liar." 

"  That  is  sure  so,  Hugh,"  said  Jack.  "  I've  seen 
people  turn  their  heads  away  and  laugh  when  I  was 
telling  them  some  common  enough  story  about  things 
out  here.  You  see  they  don't  understand  anything 
about  it,  and  so  when  they  hear  anything  that  is  outside 
of  the  range  of  their  own  experiences  they  think  I'm 
lying  to  them;  but  this  holding  Mass  in  a  Kootenay 
Indian  camp  beats  me.  It's  hard  to  believe  that  I've 
seen  it." 

"  It  does  seem  mighty  queer,  that's  so,  son,"  replied 
Hugh,  "  but  we  all  know  what  great  fellows  the 
Indians  are  for  hanging  on  to  anything  that  they  ever 
get  hold  of.  They  are  a  great  people  for  old  customs, 
and  accept  and  stick  to  what  their  old  people  have  told 
them.  Of  course,  in  these  days  they  are  changing  all 
the  time.  The  young  fellows  around  the  agencies  are 
becoming  civilized  in  spite  of  themselves,  but  take  these 
old  fellows  that  live  out  in  the  camps,  the  old  buffalo 
hunters,  and  others  of  that  sort,  and  they  haven't 
changed  much,  and  they  never  will  change  much  either. 
They'll  die  old  buffalo  hunters." 

Early  the  next  morning  the  little  party  left  their 
Indian  friends  and  started  up  the  lake.     By  ten  o'clock 


A    FAT    BIGHORN  243 

they  had  crossed  the  inlet  and  were  on  their  way  along 
the  upper  lake.  The  packs,  well  put  on  in  the  morning 
and  constantly  watched,  gave  them  no  trouble  and 
there  were  no  delays.  Xot  long  after  noon  they  passed 
their  previous  camp  just  below  the  Point  of  Rocks,  and 
climbing  that  steep  ridge,  kept  on  their  way  along  the 
mountainside. 

They  traveled  until  after  sunset  and  at  last  camped 
in  a  little  park  in  the  narrow  valley,  and  by  noon  the 
next  day  had  reached  the  old  camp  at  the  little  lake 
where  they  had  killed  the  bears. 

Here  the  aspect  of  the  mountains  was  greatly 
changed.  Much  of  the  snow  had  melted,  the  grass  was 
well  started,  and  the  landscape  looked  more  like 
summer. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

AMONG  THE  ICEFIELDS 

The  next  morning  they  rose  late,  for  the  previous  day 
had  been  long  and  hard.  At  breakfast  Hugh  said, 
"  Now,  to-day,  let's  picket  the  pack  horses  and  ride  up 
on  the  mountains  prospecting,  and  see  whether  we  can 
camp  over  there  where  that  big  snow  bank  lay  when 
we  were  here  last.  I  have  an  idea  that  we'll  find  most 
of  the  snow  gone  and  that  we'll  have  dry  ground  to 
camp  on  and  some  little  feed  near  by  for  the  horses." 

Soon  after  breakfast  they  made  ready  to  start. 

"  They  say  lightning  don't  strike  twice  in  the  same 
place,"  remarked  Hugh,  "  but  then  it  might,  so  I'm 
going  to  hang  up  all  our  stuff  in  one  of  these  trees, 
where  it  will  be  out  of  the  reach  of  the  bears.  If  they 
get  to  mixing  up  our  things  once  or  twice  more,  we 
won't  have  anything  to  eat,  and  we'll  have  to  go  back 
to  the  Agency  for  grub.  They'd  like  mighty  well,  I 
reckon,  to  get  at  this  sheep  meat,  and  if  they  could  ever 
get  hold  of  that  sheep  head  of  yours,  son,  they'd  carry 
it  off  in  the  brush,  and  you  never  would  find  it." 

Some  little  time  was  spent  in  making  up  the  bundles 
and  in  putting  them  in  places  of  safety  in  the  trees. 
Then  they  saddled  the  horses,  and  climbing  the  steep 
game  trail  that  led  to  the  valley  above,  found  them- 
selves once  more  on  the  high  bench  on  the  mountain- 
side. Here  on  the  flat  rocks  there  were  still  great  ex- 
panses of  snow,  but  it  was  melting  fast,  and  clear  tor- 
rents of  water  ran  toward  the  river  in  the  valley  below. 

244 


AMONG    THE    ICEFIELDS  245 

Among  the  rocks  was  the  same  wealth  of  wild 
flowers  that  they  had  seen  when  they  were  here  before, 
but  the  flowers  were  much  more  advanced  and  many 
of  the  blossoms  had  withered  and  seemed  now  to  be 
forming-  seed-pods. 

They  had  not  gone  far  when  an  old  mother  ptarmi- 
gan hopped  up  in  front  of  them  and  performed  the 
familiar  ruse  of  fluttering  along  the  ground  with  hang- 
ing wings,  as  if  wounded.  They  looked  carefully  for 
the  chicks,  which  they  knew  must  be  near  at  hand,  but 
could  not  see  them.  Xo  doubt  they  were  lying  imme- 
diately under  their  eyes  hidden  in  crevices  of  the  rock, 
looking  just  like  the  little  stones  that  were  scattered 
everywhere. 

Across  the  valley  the  green  timber  was  now  showing 
black  above  the  paler  grass  which  carpeted  the  soil, 
and  Joe  said,  "  I  reckon  we  can  camp  over  there  all 
right,  White  Bull." 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  it  looks  so,  doesn't  it?  Any- 
how, we'll  go  over  and  see.  You  can't  always  tell  so 
far  off  as  this." 

They  crossed  the  stream  at  its  head  among  the  great 
rounded  boulders  that  had  been  carried  down  by  the 
ice,  and  the  roar  of  the  fall  coming  over  the  precipice 
almost  deafened  them.  YYhen  they  had  left  it  a  little 
behind,  Jack  asked  Hugh,  "  Where  do  you  suppose  all 
that  water  comes  from  ?  " 

"  Why,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  reckon  it  comes  from  an 
awful  lot  of  snow  and  ice  that  lies  on  the  mountainside 
up  above  there.  I  wouldn't  be  a  mite  surprised  if  up 
there  we  were  to  find  a  glacier  two  or  three  times  as 
big  as  the  one  where  you  killed  the  sheep.  There's 
an  awful  lot  of  room  back  between  this  place  where  the 


246        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

water  falls  over  and  the  tops  of  the  mountains.  We'll 
get  there  in  the  course  of  a  day  or  two,  if  we  find  a 
good  camping  place,  as  I  think  we  will." 

Hugh's  prediction  as  to  the  possibility  of  camping 
here  was  right.  The  snow  was  gone,  the  ground 
had  dried  off,  and  the  grass  had  started  thick  and 
green. 

Hugh  seemed  well  pleased  and  selected  a  place  for 
the  camp,  declaring  that  the  best  thing  they  could  do 
would  be  to  go  right  back,  pack  up  and  move  here. 

"  It's  true,"  he  said,  "  there  isn't  feed  enough  just 
now  to  keep  the  horses,  but  we  can  turn  them  loose 
over  across  the  creek,  where  there  is  good  feed,  and  can 
bring  them  in  here  and  tie  them  up  nights,  if  we  want 
to.  I  don't  believe  that  they'll  go  off,  even  if  we  leave 
them  over  there,  though  it's  rather  far  from  camp,  and 
of  course  something  might  scare  them  and  give  us 
some  trouble  to  hunt  them  up." 

When  they  reached  camp  they  put  the  packs  on  their 
animals  and  returning,  pitched  their  tent  in  a  pretty 
little  grove  of  stunted  spruces,  close  to  the  edge  of  a 
tiny  rivulet,  where  wood  was  plentiful  and  there  was 
some  grass. 

From  here  they  could  look  out  on  a  dozen  splendid 
mountain  peaks,  some  of  them  covered  with  perpetual 
snow,  and  with  great  fields  of  white  snow  on  the  sides 
of  others  that  seemed  to  indicate  glaciers  flowing 
down  their  slopes. 

Early  next  morning  the  three  set  out  to  explore  this 
alpine  valley,  or  rather,  the  mountains  which  sur- 
round it.  Opposite  them,  to  the  west,  rose  the  huge 
mountain  along  whose  sides  they  had  now  passed  sev- 
eral times.     To  the  south  of  it  was  a  saddle,  beyond 


AMONG    THE    ICEFIELDS  247 

which  again  rose  a  rocky  ridge,  rising  toward  a  point 
that  was  hidden  from  view  by  the  high  cliff  to  the 
south,  over  which  came  the  great  water  fall  that  fed 
the  large  stream  which  was  the  main  river.  Opposite 
this  saddle,  and  so  to  the  east  of  the  camp,  was  a  valley 
in  which  grew  some  pine  timber,  and  which  seemed  to 
rise  by  a  gentle  ascent  to  very  high  rocky  peaks  that 
were  bare  of  snow. 

"  Which  way  shall  we  go,  Hugh  ?  "  said  Jack.  "  We 
have  a  lot  of  country  to  travel  over,  though  of  course 
we  don't  know  how  far  we  can  go  in  any  direction." 

"  No,"  said  Hugh,  "  we've  got  to  learn  that  for  our- 
selves. Now  the  horses  are  a  little  tired;  they've  been 
traveling  pretty  steadily  for  two  or  three  days  now, 
what  do  you  say  to  leaving  them  to  feed  here  and 
crossing  over  the  creek  and  walking  up  that  snow  slope 
to  yon  saddle,  and  seeing  what  there  is  on  the  other 
side  of  it?  I  reckon  that  here  we're  about  as  close 
to  the  Divide  as  we  can  get,  and  I  guess  likely  that  if 
we  can  reach  that  crest  of  rock  that  lies  above  the  snow 
and  look  over  it,  we'll  be  seeing  waters  that  flow  into 
the  Flat  Head  Lake,  and  so  into  the  Pacific  Ocean.  If 
we  can  get  up  on  to  that  ridge,  we  may  be  able  to  see 
what  it  is  that  lies  off  to  the  south  of  us  here,  which  is 
toward  the  Cut  Bank  Pass." 

"  I'd  like  to  do  that,"  said  Jack.  "  How  do  you  feel 
about  it,  Joe?" 

"  Well,"  answered  Joe,  "  I'd  like  to  see  it,  only  I 
don't  want  to  go  sliding  round,  the  way  I  did  the  other 
day.  I  tell  you  I  was  scared  that  time.  I  couldn't 
hold  myself  back,  and  I  didn't  know  what  was  going  to 
happen  to  me." 

"  Yes/'  said  Jack,  "  I  was  scared,  too.     It  would  be 


248        JACK,   THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

pretty  bad  luck  if  one  of  us  got  hurt  and  had  to  be 
nursed  up  here  in  the  mountains,  or  packed  in  to  the 
Agency  to  find  a  doctor." 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  you  boys  have  got  to  be  care- 
ful wherever  you  go,  and  you  must  think  about  what 
your  carelessness  might  cost  other  people. 

"  Now,  if  we  go  up  over  that  snow,  we've  got  to  try 
to  fix  ourselves  out  for  it.  We'd  better  each  one  of  us 
take  a  kind  of  walking  stick  to  hold  on  with,  and  a 
rope,  so  that  if  we  get  in  any  place  where  the  going  is 
right  bad  we  can  tie  ourselves  together,  and  go  mighty 
careful,  one  at  a  time,  the  way  Jack  was  telling  us  the 
other  day  that  those  mountain-climbing  fellows  do  in 
Europe.  I'll  take  the  ax  and  go  over  into  this  small 
timber  across  the  creek,  and  cut  some  sticks  for  us 
to  use." 

The  boys  went  with  Hugh,  and  in  a  few  minutes 
returned  with  three  long  slender  poles,  from  which, 
with  ax  and  knife,  all  the  branches  and  roughness  were 
soon  trimmed.  Hugh  pointed  the  larger  ends  of  the 
poles  and  then  told  the  boys  to  thrust  them  into  the  fire 
so  that  they  might  become  charred  and  hardened.  In 
that  way  they  would  last  and  be  effective  much  longer. 
Then  Hugh  took  a  couple  of  sling-ropes  off  the  pack 
saddles,  and  coiling  them  up,  put  one  over  his  right 
shoulder  and  under  his  left  arm,  and  gave  the  other  to 
Joe,  who  carried  it  the  same  way. 

It  was  but  a  few  minutes'  walk  over  meadows,  green 
with  new  springing  grass  and  bright  with  wild  flowers, 
to  the  ledges  down  which  they  passed  to  get  to  the 
stream.  This  was  easily  crossed  by  springing  from  rock 
to  rock,  and  a  little  later  they  were  slowly  trudging 
over  the  old  snow  upon  an  icefield. 


AMONG    THE    ICEFIELDS  249 

Just  before  reaching  the  snow,  Hugh  pointed  out 
little  brooklets  running  through  the  drift  and  gravel, 
whose  milk-white  waters  showed  that  they  came  from 
under  a  glacier. 

"  You  remember,  I  reckon,  son,"  he  said  to  Jack, 
"  what  Fannin  told  us  about  the  way  the  masses  of 
ice  and  the  loose  rocks  under  it  ground  up  the  soil  and 
rock  over  which  the  ice  passed,  and  made  the  water 
milky  with  this  powdered  rock.  This  must  be  what 
we  see  here,  and  we  can  be  sure,  I  reckon,  that  this  is 
a  glacier." 

"  Yes,"  said  Jack,  "  I  guess  there's  no  doubt  about 
that,  especially  when  we  see  that  big  moraine  off  there 
to  the  right.  That  must  have  been  made  by  the 
glacier,  though  it  looks  as  if  that  had  been  done  a  long 
time  ago." 

"  That's  what,"  said  Hugh,  "  a  long  time  ago.  But 
seeing  that  moraine  there  makes  me  think  that  maybe 
it  would  be  a  good  plan  to  get  on  that  and  walk  along 
as  far  as  it  goes.  I've  seen  these  glaciers  sometimes 
that  were  all  cracked  and  full  of  holes,  and  sometimes 
the  holes  were  bridged  with  snow,  so  that  a  man  might 
break  through  the  snow  and  fall  into  one  of  them. 
Let's  get  on  the  moraine  and  walk  along  that,  and  then 
when  we  have  to  walk  over  the  snow,  rope  ourselves 
together." 

Edging  to  the  right,  they  soon  came  to  the  steep- 
sided  moraine,  and  after  a  little  search  found  a  place 
where  they  could  ascend  it  and  walk  along  its  very 
sharp  crest.  It  was  a  place  for  careful  walking,  since 
the  crest  was  a  sharp  knife-edge  and  they  had  to 
walk  with  one  foot  on  either  side  of  the  ridge,  with  a 
drop  of  fifty  or  sixty  feet  below  if  a  misstep  were  made. 


250        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

Before  they  had  gone  very  far,  Joe,  who  was  bringing 
up  the  rear,  called,  "  I  don't  like  this  very  much.  I  am 
afraid  I  am  going  to  fall." 

"  Nonsense,"  said  Hugh,  "  you  won't  fall,  but  if  you 
feel  as  if  you  were  going  to,  you  better  sit  down  astride 
of  the  ridge,  take  your  rope  and  tie  one  end  of  it  about 
your  waist  and  throw  the  other  end  to  Jack.  Then  he 
can  tie  that  about  his  waist,  and  I'll  throw  my  rope 
back  and  he  can  tie  himself  to  that,  too." 

Joe  stopped  and  stood  there  for  a  moment  and  then 
called  out,  "  No,  I'm  all  right  now.  Go  ahead  and  I'll 
follow,  but  don't  go  too  fast." 

They  went  on  very  deliberately,  and  presently  Hugh 
reached  the  end  of  the  moraine  and  stepped  off  on  to 
the  snow,  where  a  moment  later  he  was  joined  by 
Jack  and  Joe. 

"  Now,"  said  Hugh,  "  let's  put  these  ropes  on,  leav- 
ing a  little  slack  in  our  hands.  Then  if  any  one  of  the 
three  sees  that  one  of  the  others  is  going  to  slip  or  fall, 
he  must  stand  still  and  do  the  best  he  can  to  support 
his  partner.  Look  out,  too,"  he  went  on,  "  about 
where  you're  stepping.  Try  to  follow  as  nearly  as 
you  can  just  where  I  go,  and  I'll  try  the  snow  with  my 
stick,  and  if  I  find  a  soft  place  we'll  go  around  it." 

They  started  up  the  snow  slope,  directing  their 
course  toward  the  side  of  the  great  mountain,  until 
they  had  come  pretty  close  to  it.  Then  Hugh  turned 
off  to  the  left,  and  plodded  steadily  along,  vigorously 
punching  the  snow  with  his  pole.  Occasionally  he 
stopped  to  rest  and  to  draw  a  few  deep  breaths,  and  on 
one  of  these  occasions  Hugh  said  to  Jack,  "  You  can 
see,  son,  why  I  don't  want  to  get  close  to  the  mountains 
here,"  and  he  waved  his  hand  toward  the  rocks,  at 


AMONG    THE    ICEFIELDS  251 

the  foot  of  which  Jack  saw  many  places  where  recent 
snowslides  from  high  up  on  the  mountain  had  rushed 
down  and  thrown  great  masses  of  snow  and  even  great 
pieces  of  rock  far  out  on  the  slope  which  they  were 
ascending. 

"  As  the  sun  gets  higher,"  Hugh  went  on,  "  and  the 
rocks  get  warm,  this  snow  loosens  its  hold  on  the 
mountain,  and  sometimes  a  very  little  thing  will  break 
the  last  hold  it  has,  and  the  whole  mass  will  come  rush- 
ing down.  We  don't  want  to  get  close  enough  under 
the  rocks  to  have  any  of  that  stuff  hit  us." 

"  Well,  White  Bull,"  asked  Joe,  "  why  don't  you 
keep  far  out  from  the  mountain  ?  " 

"  It's  like  this,"  replied  Hugh ;  "  you  see  out  there  in 
the  middle  of  the  ice  the  slope  is  steepest,  and  there  in 
the  middle  is  where  the  ice  moves  fastest.  For  that 
reason  it's  more  likely  to  be  cracked  and  broken  there, 
and  it's  into  those  crevices  that  a  man  might  slip  and 
get  hurt.  We  want  to  dodge  those  cracks  in  the  ice 
on  the  one  hand,  and  the  falling  snow  and  rocks  on  the 
other,  and  that  is  just  what  I'm  trying  to  do." 

"  I  tell  you,  Hugh,"  said  Jack,  admiringly,  "  you 
seem  to  see  everything  and  to  think  of  everything." 

"  Oh,  no,"  replied  Hugh,  "  there's  lots  of  things  that 
I  don't  see  and  lots  of  things  that  I  don't  think  of,  but, 
of  course,  a  man  that's  been  a  long  time  in  the  moun- 
tains gets  to  know  some  things,  and  if  he's  got  any 
sense  he  tries  to  keep  himself  out  of  danger." 

For  an  hour  or  two  more  they  climbed  steadily, 
always  keeping  near  the  rim  of  the  great  basin,  yet  well 
away  from  the  rocks,  and  at  last  they  were  on  snow 
that  was  almost  level,  and  well  up  toward  a  wall  of 
rock,  which  sometimes  stood  up  high,  or  again  was 


252         JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

broken  down  and  so  low  that  it  was  but  six  or  eight 
feet  above  the  level  of  the  snow.  Gradually  they  drew 
near  to  this  wall,  which  was  bare  of  snow  and  from 
which,  therefore,  Hugh  anticipated  no  danger,  until 
at  last  they  had  come  so  close  to  it  that  it  seemed  that 
they  might  reach  it  at  almost  any  point. 

Hugh  kept  on  to  a  place  where  the  wall  was  quite 
broken  down,  and  then,  turning,  reached  the  edge  of 
the  snow  and  stepped  across  to  the  rocks,  where  the 
others  joined  him. 

Through  the  opening  where  they  were  standing  they 
could  see  mountains,  and,  taking  two  or  three  steps 
forward,  looked  into  a  black  gorge  full  of  snow  and 
ice,  from  which  a  narrow  valley  led  away  to  the  south- 
west. It  was  the  coldest,  most  desolate  place  that  any 
of  them  had  ever  looked  into.  Below,  a  precipice  fell 
away  a  sheer  thousand  feet,  and  then,  piled  up  in  the 
valley,  one  could  not  tell  how  thickly,  was  the  snow, 
sometimes  broken  and  showing  green  ice  beneath  it, 
and  sometimes  with  an  immense  peak  of  rock  sticking 
out  through  it.  There  was  no  life  to  be  seen,  and  no 
green  thing;  only  black  rocks,  white  snow  and  dark 
ice. 

"  My,"  said  Jack,  "  that's  a  terrible  place." 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  it  would  be  mighty  lonesome 
for  a  man  who  was  put  down  anywhere  in  there." 

"  I  don't  like  to  look  at  it,"  said  Joe,  "  it  scares  me. 
I  don't  like  these  mountains.  I  like  the  prairie,  where 
it's  warm  and  where  you  can  see  a  long  way." 

"  Do  you  suppose  that  anything  lives  down  there, 
Hugh?"  said  Jack. 

"  Well,  I  don't  know,"  was  the  answer.  "  I  reckon 
likely  the  goats  go  down  there  in  summer  to  get  cool, 


AMONG    THE    ICEFIELDS  253 

but  how  they  get  up  here  again  if  they  go  down  there, 
I  don't  know.  Maybe  there  are  some  places  where  a 
goat  or  a  man  could  get  down,  but  I  can't  see  them 
from  here." 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  Fd  hate  to  go  hunting  down 
there,  and  I  don't  believe  Fd  go  if  I  saw  a  dozen 
goats." 

"  No,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  don't  reckon  you  would.  I 
think  it  would  be  better  to  try  to  find  some  easier  place 
to  do  your  hunting.     It's  scary  looking." 

They  spent  a  long  time  looking  down  into  this  gulf, 
and  the  longer  they  looked  the  more  dark  and  forbid- 
ding it  seemed.  Hugh  said  that  the  waters  from  the 
melting  snow  and  ice  must  run  down  into  some  river 
that  entered  Flat  Head  Lake,  but  what  river  it  was  he 
did  not  know,  for  he  had  never  been  in  the  mountains 
on  the  other  side  of  the  range. 

At  length,  retreating  from  the  edge  of  the  precipice, 
they  went  out  to  the  other  side  of  the  rocks,  and,  sit- 
ting down,  ate  the  little  lunch  of  fried  sheep  meat  and 
bread  that  they  had  brought  in  their  pockets.  Then 
Hugh  smoked  his  pipe,  and  presently  they  started  to 
return  to  camp. 

"  How  are  you  going  back,  Hugh  ?  "  asked  Jack. 
"The  way  we  came  or  some  other  way?" 

"  No,"  said  Hugh,  "  the  way  we  came  is  good 
enough  for  me.  I  know  I  can  get  back  that  way,  and, 
if  we  try  some  other  road,  I  don't  feel  sure  that  we 
won't  meet  some  steep  slope  or  some  big  crack  that 
will  stop  us.  I  took  notice  as  we  came  up  this  morn- 
ing that  the  snow  on  the  other  side  of  the  basin  looks 
mighty  steep,  and  I  don't  want  to  imitate  Joe  and  go 
sliding  around  the  way  he  did.     Let's  go  back  the  way 


254        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

we  came,  and  then  if  we  want  to  try  some  other  way, 
if  we  ever  come  here  again,  we  can  try  it  from  the 
bottom,  and  if  we  get  stopped  we  can  go  back  to 
camp." 

Adjusting  their  ropes,  they  started  on  the  return 
journey.  The  heat  of  the  sun  had  decidedly  affected 
the  snow,  and  it  was  much  softer  than  when  they  had 
come  up  a  few  hours  before.  This  made  the  walking 
easier,  and  their  progress  down  the  slope  was  much 
more  rapid,  so  that  the  afternoon  was  only  half  spent 
when  they  found  themselves  once  more  in  camp. 

None  of  the  horses  were  in  sight,  and  they  at  once 
set  out  to  look  for  them,  and  after  considerable  search 
found  them  all  together  not  very  far  from  camp,  but 
a  little  way  down  the  hill,  where  the  grass  grew  thicker 
and  greener  than  close  to  the  camp. 

"  Now,  boys,"  said  Hugh,  "  I'll  tell  you  what  we've 
got  to  do.  We  can't  afford  to  lose  our  horses  and  we 
can't  expect  them  to  stay  close  to  camp  where  there's 
no  grass,  so  let's  take  them  over  across  the  creek,  and 
turn  them  loose  on  the  other  side,  where  the  feed  is 
better  and  they  can't  very  well  get  away.  If  they  come 
back  and  cross  the  creek  to  go  down  hill,  we  will  hear 
them,  and  in  the  morning  if  any  of  them  are  gone 
from  the  place  where  we  turned  them  loose,  we  can 
go  down  the  hill  on  this  side  of  the  creek  and  catch 
them  before  they  have  gone  far." 

Hugh's  advice  was  acted  on,  and  then  returning  to 
the  tent  they  found  that  it  was  time  for  supper. 

After  supper  the  question  came  up  as  to  what  they 
should  do  to-morrow.  After  talking  for  a  little  while, 
Hugh  said,  "  Now,  son,  of  course,  we  want  to  keep 
busy  and  see  and  do  all  that  we  can  up  here  in  the 


AMONG    THE    ICEFIELDS  255 

mountains,  but  then  we  must  remember  that  we've  got 
pretty  nearly  all  the  time  there  is.  We  don't  need  to 
make  a  labor  of  our  fun  and  climb  these  hills  every 
day.  If  you  boys  want  to  do  so,  you  can  just  as 
well  stay  in  camp  for  a  day  now  and  then,  and  kind 
of  rest  up.  These  rocks  here  are  not  going  to  get 
away,  and  you  don't  have  to  climb  them  all  to-morrow. 
If  you  feel  like  doing  it,  we  can  all  stay  in  camp  to- 
morrow and  take  things  easy,  and  then  start  out  on 
our  travels  the  next  day." 

"  I  think  maybe  that's  a  good  idea,  Hugh,"  said 
Jack.  "  We've  been  on  the  go  pretty  steadily  ever 
since  we  came  out,  and  maybe  it  would  be  a  good  idea 
to  loaf  for  a  day." 

"  I  think  so,  too,"  agreed  Joe,  "  and  then  something 
else,  my  eyes  hurt  me  to-night.  I  think  maybe  the 
shine  of  the  sun  on  the  snow  is  what  makes  them  pain." 

"  Yes."  said  Hugh  ;  "  we  did  a  fool  trick  this  morn- 
ing. I  didn't  think  of  it  until  we  got  well  up  on  the 
ice,  and  the  sun  commenced  to  get  strong.  We  ought 
to  have  blackened  our  noses  before  we  started  out. 
We're  all  of  us  likely  to  have  sore  eyes  to-morrow.  I 
don't  think  it  will  last  long  nor  hurt  much,  but  the  sun 
is  strong  now.  You  see  it's  mid-summer  and,  of 
course,  the  glare  from  the  ice  is  pretty  bad.  After 
this,  we  must  not  start  out  over  the  snow  without 
fixing  up  our  faces." 

So  after  a  little  more  talk  it  was  determined  that 
the  next  day  should  be  spent  in  and  about  camp. 

The  boys  were  lazy  about  rising  the  next  morning, 
and  when  they  got  up  they  saw  Hugh  sitting  by  the 
fire  smoking,  and  noticed  that  the  brilliant  sunlight 
which  was  cut  off  from  the  camp  by  the  great  moun- 


256        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

tain  that  rose  to  the  east  of  them,  was  slowly  creeping 
down  the  ice  field  across  the  valley.     It  was  late. 

"  Why,  Hugh,"  said  Jack,  "  I  guess  I  was  more 
tired  than  I  thought.  I  slept  right  through,  and  I  had 
no  idea  it  was  as  late  as  this." 

"Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "it's  pretty  late.  I've  had 
breakfast  cooked  for  two  or  three  hours,  and  I  reckon 
you'll  find  everything  pretty  well  dried  up  when  you 
get  to  eating;  but  no  matter  about  that,  the  grub  is 
ready  for  you;  are  you  ready  for  it?  " 

"  I'll  be  ready  in  about  five  minutes,"  said  Jack,  as 
he  hurried  down  to  the  little  stream  where  they  had 
scraped  out  a  pool  where  the  water  had  collected  and 
which  made  a  very  good  place  for  washing  their  hands 
and  faces.  Presently  they  were  all  at  breakfast  and 
enjoying  their  food,  even  if  it  was  dried  up. 

After  Hugh  had  washed  the  dishes,  he  said,  "  Now, 
boys,  I'm  going  over  to  the  other  side  of  the  creek 
there  to  look  at  the  horses  and  see  how  they're  getting 
along,  and  I'll  be  back  in  two  or  three  hours.  Any- 
body that  wants  to  go  with  me  can,  and  anybody  that 
wants  to  stay  here  can  stay." 

"  I'll  go,"  said  Joe,  "  if  you  won't  make  me  climb 
over  that  ice." 

"  No,"  laughed  Hugh,  "  I  promise  not  to  take  you 
on  to  the  ice,  but  I  want  to  see  how  those  horses  are 
making  out  over  there,  and  if  there's  plenty  of  feed 
for  them.  They  seemed  to  be  well  satisfied  this  morn- 
ing." 

"  I  don't  believe  I'll  go,"  Jack  said.  "  My  eyes  hurt 
me  a  little,  and  I  think  I'll  just  sit  here  in  camp,  and 
then  if  I  get  tired  of  doing  that  I'll  take  a  little  walk 
up  the  valley." 


CHAPTER  XIX 

A    FOUR-FOOTED    HUNTER 

Hugh  and  Joe  started  off  to  look  at  the  horses,  while 
Jack  stayed  in  camp  and  watched  the  mountains,  and 
noticed  how  their  shadows  grew  shorter  and  shorter 
as  the  sunlight  crept  toward  the  place  where  he  was 
sitting. 

It  was  quiet  here.  Now  and  then  a  bird's  note 
sounded  in  the  trees  above  him,  and  once  he  heard  the 
shrill  whistle  of  a  mountain  woodchuck  and  always 
the  dull  sound  of  water  falling  over  the  cliff.  Despite 
the  quiet,  there  was  yet  much  that  was  delightful  in 
his  surroundings. 

As  he  sat  there  doing  nothing,  the  forest,  which 
to  the  casual  traveler  seems  so  silent  and  so  destitute 
of  life,  began  to  give  out  little  sounds  and  to  show 
movements  that  Jack  hardly  expected.  Down  by  the 
stream  a  friendly  little  water  ouzel  came  along  feeding, 
and  stopping  near  the  place  where  Jack  sat,  perched 
himself  on  a  dry  stick,  and  sat  there  for  a  long  time, 
practicing  his  thrush-like  song.  He  seemed  to  be  a 
young  bird  and,  though  low,  his  song  was  very  musical. 
He  tried  it  over  and  over  again,  stopping  sometimes 
when  he  thought  he  had  made  a  mistake,  and  beginning 
anew  with  great  patience  and  perseverance.  He  was 
a  humble  bit  of  life  as  he  perched  there,  clad  in  quaker 
gray  and  hardly  to  be  distinguished  from  a  stub  of 
the  dead  branch  on  which  he  rested,  and  Jack  could  not 

257 


258        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

but  admire  the  little  fellow  and  be  delighted  by  his 
liquid  notes. 

On  one  of  the  trees  hung  the  shoulders  of  the  sheep, 
which,  shining  red  against  the  dark  green,  attracted 
the  notice  of  a  vagrant  company  of  gray  jays,  which 
were  flitting  from  point  to  point  among  the  pines. 
Jack  had  seen  many  of  these  amusing  rascals,  some- 
times known  as  meat  hawks  or  camp  robbers,  and  was 
always  ready  to  admire  their  astonishing  impudence. 

A  gray  jay  has  little  fear  of  human  beings.  He  is 
likely  to  alight  within  three  feet  of  one's  face,  and  to 
wink  at  one  in  daring  fashion.  He  will  stand  on  the 
legs  of  a  deer  which  is  hanging  in  a  tree  while  you  are 
skinning  it,  and  from  his  perch  will  dart  down  to  the 
ground  after  every  little  bit  of  meat  or  fat  that  drops 
from  the  knife.  One  can  entice  them  almost  up  to  his 
hand  by  tossing  bits  of  food  to  them,  making  each  bil 
fall  a  little  nearer  than  the  last;  yet,  notwithstanding 
all  their  impudence  and  apparent  tameness,  they  are 
watchful  and  well  able  to  take  care  of  themselves. 
They  scan  you  suspiciously  with  keen  black  eyes,  and 
are  always  on  the  alert. 

A  group  of  these  bold  fellows  darted  down  from  the 
tree  tops,  some  of  them  perching  on  the  meat  in  the 
tree,  but  two  or  three  plunging  close  to  the  fire,  and 
alighting  with  an  audacious  flirt  and  spreading  of  the 
tail,  which  made  Jack  feel  that  the  camp  belonged 
rather  to  the  birds  than  to  him,  and  that  he,  if  he  had 
any  modesty  at  all,  ought  to  go  off  and  leave  them 
to  occupy  it. 

The  jays  raised  themselves  to  their  full  height,  as 
if  standing  on  tiptoe,  and  looked  round,  and  then 
seeming  perfectly  satisfied,  hopped  about  and  picked  up 


A    FOUR-FOOTED    HUNTER  259 

little  pieces  of  bacon,  morsels  of  fat  and  crumbs  of 
bread.  Some  of  these  they  ate  at  once,  some  they 
took  up  and  carried  off  bodily  to  a  neighboring  branch, 
where,  holding  the  food  under  one  foot,  they  ham- 
mered and  tore  the  piece  until  it  was  so  divided  that 
they  could  swallow  it. 

One  of  the  jays  got  hold  of  a  bone  of  the  sheep  to 
which  some  flesh  was  clinging,  and  as  it  was  too  big  to 
carry  off,  pecked  at  it  until  he  got  a  beak  full  of 
the  food,  and  then  flew  off  to  eat  it,  but  immediately 
returned  for  more. 

Jack  noticed  that  the  jays  that  were  working  at  the 
meat  hanging  in  the  trees  sometimes  clung  to  it,  hang- 
ing head  down,  like  titmice,  which,  indeed,  they  some- 
what resembled.  They  did  not  seem  very  good-na- 
tured among  themselves,  and  Jack  noticed  that  if  two 
alighted  on  the  same  piece  of  meat,  one  of  them  always 
retired  and  waited  until  the  other  had  satisfied  himself 
and  gone  off.  Once  or  twice  there  seemed  a  possibility 
of  an  active  quarrel  between  two  of  them.  One  of  the 
two  would  draw  himself  up  very  straight  indeed, 
slightly  raise  the  feathers  of  his  head  and  give  a  low 
flute-like  whistle,  and  when  the  other  saw  this  attitude 
and  heard  the  warning  he  at  once  flew  away. 

Jack  supposed  that  the  jays  would  eat  what  they 
wanted,  and  then  go  away,  but  this  was  not  the  case. 
After  satisfying  their  appetites,  they  continued  their 
foraging,  carrying  off  their  booty  and  laying  it  up  in 
secret  storehouses  on  the  branches,  or  in  the  little 
festoons  of  moss  that  hung  from  the  trees. 

Jack  noticed  that  they  seemed  to  store  away  quite 
a  little  bit  of  food  in  their  throats,  and  that  when  they 
had  all  they  could  carry  they  went  off  and  deposited 


2<5o        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

it,  and  came  back  for  more.  The  gray  jays  were  so 
persistent  and  such  wholesale  robbers  that  Jack  con- 
templated throwing  sticks  and  stones  at  them  to  drive 
they  away,  but  before  he  had  made  up  his  mind  to  do 
this  another  bird  appeared,  which  at  once  scattered  the 
jays. 

While  they  were  hard  at  work  gathering  plunder 
from  the  camp  a  dark  shape  flashed  across  the  open- 
ing, and  a  moment  later  a  beautiful  Steller's  jay 
alighted  in  a  small  tree  near  the  tent,  raised  his  long 
crest,  looked  about  him  for  an  instant,  and  then  hop- 
ping from  one  branch  to  another,  reached  the  topmost 
spray  of  the  tree,  where  he  hung  for  an  instant,  swing- 
ing backward  and  forward  on  a  slender  twig.  Then 
he  darted  down  and  alighted  on  the  meat,  and  after 
another  glance  about  him,  attacked  it  with  much  vigor, 
sinking  his  sharp  bill  into  the  tender  flesh  at  every 
stroke.  He  was  a  fine  fellow,  this  Rocky  Mountain 
blue  jay,  beautiful  in  color  and  shape,  with  dark  blue 
wings  and  tail,  a  smoky  brown  body  and  head  and  a 
long  crest,  with  light  blue  dots  on  his  forehead.  He 
was  trim,  graceful,  alert  and  quick  in  all  his  motions, 
but  he  remained  about  the  camp  only  a  little  while  and 
then  dashed  away  into  the  forest. 

After  the  blue  jay  had  gone,  and  the  coast  was  clear, 
the  gray  jays  came  back  again,  and  so  persistently  did 
they  assail  the  meat  that  Jack  finally  drove  them  off, 
and  threw  a  coat  over  it  to  protect  it. 

The  daring  and  impudent  gray  jays  were  not,  how- 
ever, the  only  birds  about  the  camp.  Modest  little 
juncos — birds  like  the  black  snow  bird  of  the  East — 
now  and  then  crept  out  of  the  forest  and  made  cautious 
advances  to  the  neighborhood  of  the  fire,  where  they 


A    FOUR-FOOTED    HUNTER  261 

feasted  on  the  bread  crumbs  that  had  been  dropped  on 
the  ground. 

When  Jack  first  saw  them  they  seemed  to  him  the 
most  timid,  shrinking  little  creatures  imaginable,  and 
he  was  astonished  later  to  see  two  of  them  almost 
come  to  blows  over  a  choice  bit  of  bread  that  one  had 
found.  When  another  bird  approached  the  dainty 
which  its  discoverer  was  picking  to  pieces,  the  owner 
grimly  lowered  his  head  and  bristled  up  his  feathers, 
prepared  to  defend  his  rights.  The  other  little  bird 
threw  itself  into  a  defensive  position  as  if  quite  pre- 
pared for  battle,  but  the  two  did  not  quite  come  to 
blows.  After  eyeing  each  other  for  a  few  seconds  one 
made  a  little  hop  to  one  side  and  then  the  other  moved 
off,  and  presently  the  ruffled  feathers  were  smoothed 
down. 

Back  in  the  woods.  Jack  could  hear  now  and  then 
dull  tappings  and  drummings,  which  told  him  that  the 
carpenters  among  the  birds  were  at  work,  and  after  a 
while  one  of  these  woodpeckers  dashed  into  camp,  and, 
alighting  near  the  top  of  an  old  stub,  stood  there  for  a 
while  as  if  waiting  to  be  admired. 

He  was  a  handsome  fellow,  with  a  glossy  black  back, 
relieved  by  white  shoulder  knots  and  wearing  a  satiny 
cap  of  red.  Fie  was  also  an  energetic  worker,  but 
liked  frequent  intervals  of  rest. 

He  hammered  away  on  the  wood  as  if  his  life  de- 
pended on  it,  making  the  chips  fly  this  way  and  that, 
but  when  he  secured  the  grub  that  his  keen  ear  told 
him  was  concealed  there  and  had  swallowed  it,  he 
would  sit  still  for  some  moments  as  if  considering  its 
excellent  flavor. 

A  sudden  movement  of  the  gray  jays,  which  still 


262         JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

loitered  about  in  the  hope  of  being  able  to  steal  some- 
thing more,  occasionally  alarmed  this  visitor  and  caused 
him  to  dodge  around  to  the  other  side  of  the  stub 
with  a  little  shriek  of  alarm,  but  he  would  at  once  peer 
out  from  behind  it  and,  finding  that  he  had  been 
frightened  without  cause,  went  to  work  again. 

Two  rather  distant  cousins  of  this  woodpecker  also 
came  into  the  camp.  They  were  banded  three-toed 
woodpeckers,  somewhat  more  modestly  clad  in  black 
and  white,  with  yellow  silk  caps. 

Jack  noticed  that  they  worked  most  on  the  trunks 
of  the  higher  trees  and  on  the  larger  limbs,  cork- 
screwing about  them  and  pecking  away  in  modest 
fashion,  as  if  anxious  to  escape  observation. 

One  of  them  crept  into  a  hollow  in  the  bark  of  a 
great  spruce  and  stayed  there  for  a  long  time,  and 
Jack  thought  that  he  was  taking  a  nap  before  starting 
out  for  his  supper. 

For  some  hours  Jack  sat  there  watching  the  birds 
and  having  a  delightfully  lazy  time.  Once  in  a  while 
he  looked  across  the  creek  to  the  place  where  the  horses 
were,  and  could  see  two  figures,  which  he  knew  must 
be  Hugh  and  Joe.  They  seemed  in  no  hurry  to  return 
to  the  camp,  but  had  gone  beyond  the  horses  and 
almost  to  the  crest  of  the  hill  above  the  old  camp 
where  the  bears  had  been  killed. 

At  length  when  the  birds  had  all  gone  off  and  he  felt 
a  little  tired  of  doing  nothing.  Jack  took  up  his  rifle  and 
crossing  the  tiny  stream  which  lay  before  the  camp, 
clambered  half  a  mile  or  more  up  the  mountainside. 
It  was  steep,  but  not  bad  going. 

There  was  little  sign  of  game,  but,  presently,  on 
one  of  the  ledges,  Jack  walked  into  a  little  brood  of 


A    FOUR-FOOTED    HUNTER  263 

Franklin's  grouse ;  a  mother  and  half  a  dozen  young 
ones  as  big  as  a  quail. 

At  first  the  old  bird  seemed  rather  uneasy,  but  not 
sufficiently  alarmed  to  resort  to  any  of  the  common 
tricks  for  leading  an  intruder  away  from  her  young, 
and  Jack  sat  down  on  the  ground  close  to  them  and 
watched  them  for  a  long  time.  They  did  not  seem 
very  active  birds,  nor  did  they  display  much  energy 
in  searching  for  food.  They  seemed  to  him  rather 
lazy,  and  at  last  he  rose  and,  leaving  them,  went  on. 

From  his  high  perch  he  could  see  far  into  the  dis- 
tance and  could  now  overlook  the  great  cliff  lying 
south  of  the  camp,  which  he  discovered  to  be  the  north- 
ern boundary  of  an  immense  snow  field  which  ran  back 
a  long  way  to  a  vast  mountain  and  to  the  ridges  which 
extended  from  it  on  either  hand. 

"  My,"  said  Jack  to  himself,  ''that  will  be  no  fool 
of  a  climb  to  cross  that  ice  and  get  on  those  ridges. 
We  will  have  to  do  that  before  very  long." 

Looking  down  across  the  valley  he  could  now  see 
Hugh  and  Joe  returning  to  camp,  and  turning  about 
retraced  his  steps  and  got  to  the  tent  soon  after  the 
others. 

The  next  morning  Hugh  proposed  that  they  should 
explore  still  further  the  valley  which  lay  to  the  east 
of  the  camp,  up  which  they  had  ridden  when  they  had 
been  here  before.  There  was  no  special  reason  for  hunt- 
ing, since  they  still  had  plenty  of  the  sheep  killed  a  few 
days  before. 

It  took  some  little  time  to  go  across  the  stream  and 
bring  in  the  horses — the  pack  animals  along  with  the 
others,  since  there  was  no  place  over  where  they  were 
feeding  where  they  could  be  tied  up.     The  long  level 


264        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

ledges  of  rock  that  formed  the  floor  of  the  bench  gave 
no  opportunity  for  driving  a  picket  pin  down  into  the 
soil,  and  indeed  the  feed  was  so  scattered  that  a  pick- 
eted horse  would  get  nothing  to  eat. 

Jack  suggested  that  they  should  tie  up  the  pack 
animals  near  camp,  but  Hugh  said  no,  that  it  would  be 
better  to  let  them  follow,  and  perhaps  graze  in  the  little 
valley  up  which  they  were  about  to  go.  There  was  no 
likelihood  that  they  would  get  out  of  this  narrow 
trough,  and  even  if  they  did  not  follow  the  saddle 
horses,  they  could  be  picked  up  on  the  return  to  camp 
and  taken  back  to  their  feeding  ground. 

As  the  three  riders  passed  among  the  scattered  pines 
that  grew  in  the  valley  they  were  again  impressed  by 
the  vast  height  to  which  the  mountains  rose  on  either 
hand,  by  the  stillness  of  the  place,  and  by  the  glimpses 
they  had  from  time  to  time  of  new  snowfields  and 
rock  pinnacles. 

When  they  had  passed  the  little  lake  that  lay  high 
up  in  the  valley  Jack  rode  down  to  its  edge,  and  saw 
there  the  fresh  tracks  of  mountain  sheep  and  one  huge 
footmark  of  an  immense  bear.  He  got  down  from  his 
horse  and  measured  the  length  of  this  track,  which 
was  very  large,  reaching  from  the  heel-plate  of  his 
rifle  to  the  hammer. 

Remounting,  he  followed  Hugh  and  Joe,  whose 
horses  were  clambering  up  a  steep  slope  which  pres- 
ently ended  in  a  tumbled  mass  of  rock  lying  at  the  foot 
of  a  low  cliff. 

When  the  travelers  reached  the  rocks  they  tied  their 
horses  to  some  little  spruces  and  started  to  breast  the 
steep  ascent  on  foot. 

It  was  a  long,  hard  climb,  but  in  no  way  dangerous, 


A    FOUR-FOOTED    HUNTER  265 

simply  the  mounting  one  after  another  of  low  ledges 
or  steep  rocky  slopes,  wearying  to  the  legs  and  making 
the  climbers  puff. 

At  last  they  reached  a  very  high  point  from  which 
they  could  look  out  over  the  upper  lake  and  see  to  the 
northeast  a  number  of  cold  snowy  basins.  Over  some 
mountain  points  they  could  see  also  what  they  believed 
to  be  the  prairie  shining  in  the  hot  sun,  but  the  lower 
lake  was  hidden  by  the  mountains. 

"  Come  on  now,"  said  Hugh,  "  let  us  see  if  we  can 
work  our  way  over  on  to  this  next  ridge  to  the  south. 
If  we  can  get  there,  I  believe  we  can  see  down  into  the 
head  of  Red  Eagle  ("reck." 

Following  the  ridge  as  well  as  they  could,  and  going 
down  hill  but  little,  the  three  soon  stood  on  another 
crest  of  rock,  from  which  they  looked  down  into  a 
long  valley,  carpeted  at  its  head  with  grass  and  low  wil- 
lows, but  farther  down  supporting  large  spruces  and 
pines.  In  the  timber  a  long  way  off  shone  a  bit  of  sil- 
ver, which  Hugh  told  them  was  Red  Eagle  Lake. 

"  Who  is  the  lake  named  after,  Hugh?  "  asked  Jack. 
"  It  cannot  be  our  Red  Eagle  that  we  saw  back  at 
the  Agency." 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  ''that's  just  who  it  is.  A  man 
that  thought  a  great  deal  of  him  came  up  that  valley 
and  found  the  lake  and  named  it  after  the  old  man, 
and  the  creek  and  the  valley  take  their  name  from  the 
lake,  I  reckon." 

"  That's  interesting,  Hugh,"  remarked  Jack,  "  I'm 
glad  somebody  has  given  Indian  names  to  these  moun- 
tains. I  think  that  is  the  way  that  mountains,  lakes 
and  rivers  ought  to  be  named.  The  first  thing  we 
know  there  won't  be  any  Indians  left,  and  unless  we 


266         JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

name  the  main  features  of  the  land  after  them,  the 
Indians  will  all  be  forgotten." 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  don't  know  but  you're  right. 
It  seems  to  me  a  great  deal  better  to  call  things  and 
places  after  Indians  than  to  call  them  after  the  names 
of  European  cities.  Haven't  you  got  a  Rome  in  New 
York  State?  I  know  we've  got  a  Paris  in  my  State, 
and  I  don't  think  either  name  is  a  very  good  one  for 
an  American  city." 

"  Not  a  bit  good,"  replied  Jack. 

While  Hugh  and  Jack  had  been  discussing  names 
and  places,  Joe  had  been  studying  the  mountainsides, 
to  see  whether  he  could  discover  any  game.  Pres- 
ently he  picked  up  a  little  bit  of  snow  and  tossed  it 
toward  Hugh  and  Jack.  It  hit  Hugh's  leg  and  he 
turned  around  and  looked  at  Joe,  who  made,  with  his 
lips,  a  side  motion  toward  the  valley,  and  after  a 
moment's  search  Hugh,  and  then  a  little  later,  Jack, 
discovered  several  sheep  feeding  far  below  them. 

Taking  out  their  glasses,  they  sat  down  on  the  rocks 
and  began  to  search  the  valley  for  sheep,  and  before 
long  discovered  a  number. 

Jack  thought  that  there  must  be  eighteen  or 
twenty,  though  it  was  not  easy  to  count  them,  for 
some  would  occasionally  disappear,  hidden  behind 
some  bush  or  rise  of  the  ground,  while  others  would 
be  found  in  unexpected  places. 

Those  feeding  at  the  upper  end  of  the  valley  seemed 
to  be  rams,  some  of  them  with  very  large  horns,  while 
those  farther  away  were  harder  to  identify,  but  ap- 
peared to  be  ewes  and  lambs. 

"  Wei",  son,"  said  Hugh,  "  there  are  your  sheep  all 
right,  but  as  near  as  I  can  see  they're  pretty  safe." 


A    FOUR-FOOTED    HUNTER  267 

"  I  guess  they  are,  Hugh,"  answered  Jack.  "  I 
don't  see  any  way  of  getting  at  them  without  going 
down  into  that  valley,  and  the  way  it  looks  to  me  you 
couldn't  go  and  come  in  the  same  day." 

"  No,"  said  Hugh,  "  it's  a  long  way." 

They  spent  some  hours  looking  at  the  sheep,  all  of 
which  after  a  while  stopped  feeding,  and  the  ewes  and 
lambs  lay  down  on  the  grass,  while  most  of  the  rams 
left  the  valley  and  climbed  some  distance  up  the  rocks 
and  lay  down. 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  don't  know  but  we've  seen 
enough  of  Red  Eagle  Valley  and  its  bunch  of  sheep, 
especially  as  we're  not  going  to  get  any  of  them.  What 
do  you  say  to  turning  round  and  going  back  to  camp  ?  " 

The  boys  were  ready,  and  they  started  back,  follow- 
ing along  the  rim  of  rocks  on  which  they  were  until 
they  came  to  the  high  cliffs,  down  which  they  had  to 
climb  to  get  to  their  horses. 

They  were  descending  these,  sometimes  jumping 
from  ledge  to  ledge,  and  in  bad  places  lowering  them- 
selves by  their  hands,  when  Hugh,  who  was  a  little 
below  the  others,  gave  a  low  hiss,  which  caused  the 
boys  to  stand  motionless.  After  a  moment  he  said  in 
a  low  voice,  "  Come  on  down  to  where  I  am,  and  be 
quick  about  it." 

Cautiously  and  silently  the  boys  descended  to  the 
broad  ledge  on  which  Hugh  stood. 

He  pointed  across  the  valley  to  a  mountainside  not 
more  than  three  hundred  yards  away  and  said,  "  Do 
you  see  that  hill  there  with  the  ridge  running  down 
toward  camp?  Well,  a  minute  ago  three  young  rams 
passed  behind  that,  and  behind  the  rams  came  a  lion 
stalking  them." 


268         JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

"  Well,  what  became  of  them,  Hugh?  "  asked  Jack. 
"  Are  they  still  behind  there?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  haven't  seen  them  come  out 
and  I  don't  know  as  we  will,  but  if  the  lion  jumps  on 
one  of  them,  the  other  two  ought  to  show  up  soon." 

Almost  as  he  spoke  they  saw  the  three  young  rams 
climbing  toward  the  upper  ledges  of  the  mountain, 
evidently  undisturbed  as  yet,  and  a  moment  or  two 
later  the  panther  appeared  on  the  trail  that  the  rams 
had  followed,  eagerly  looking  after  them. 

The  sheep  climbed  higher  and  higher  and  then 
stopped,  and  after  standing  for  a  little  while,  two  of 
them  lay  down. 

Meanwhile,  their  pursuer  had  not  been  able  to  ad- 
vance, for  if  he  had  followed  the  trail  which  the  rams 
had  taken  they  would  surely  have  seen  him  and  run 
off.  Two  or  three  times  he  put  up  his  head  to  look  at 
them  and  then  drew  it  back  again. 

"  What  can  we  do,  Hugh  ?  "  asked  Jack.  "  I'd  like 
to  get  a  shot  at  that  lion,  but  he's  a  long  way  off,  and 
doesn't  show  himself." 

"  No,  you  can't  do  anything  now,"  declared  Hugh, 
"  except  wait.  Maybe  if  the  rams  move,  he  will  come 
out  so  that  you  can  shoot  at  him  with  some  chance  of 
hitting.  As  it  is  now,  it's  a  thousand  to  one  that  you 
wouldn't  come  anywhere  near  him  and  would  just 
scare  the  game  and  make  a  noise  for  nothing.  If  you 
were  'round  on  the  other  side  of  that  hill  you  could 
probably  get  a  good  shot,  but  so  you  could  if  you  had 
wings  and  could  fly  right  over  the  beast." 

"  Nothing  to  do  but  wait  here,  I  expect?  "  said  Joe. 

"  Nothing  else,"  said  Hugh. 

Eager  though  Jack  was  to  get  a  shot  at  the  panther 


A    FOUR-FOOTED    HUNTER  269 

and  strong  as  were  his  sympathies  with  the  sheep,  he 
could  not  help  being  interested  as  he  sat  there  and 
watched  the  three  rams  which  stood  unconsciously  so 
near  their  deadly  enemy,  and  the  patience  and  caution 
of  the  great  cat.  He  hardly  marked  the  passage  of 
time,  so  anxious  was  he  to  see  the  lion  as  it  took  an 
occasional  peep  at  the  sheep,  and  then  settled  back 
again  out  of  sight.  At  last,  however,  he  whispered 
to  Hugh,  "Isn't  there  anything  we  can  do,  Hugh? 
Ed  like  that  lion." 

"  I  don't  know  of  anything  unless  we  want  to  end 
the  show  right  here.  If  you  make  a  move  the  rams 
will  see  us  and  go  off,  and  likely  enough  when  the  lion 
sees  them  go  away  scared  he  will  see  us,  and  then 
he'll  go." 

For  a  long  time  they  sat  there,  but  at  length  the  two 
rams  that  had  been  lying  down  got  up,  and  after  mov- 
ing about  a  little,  started  on,  passing  out  of  sight, 
round  the  side  of  the  mountain,  and  long  before  they 
had  disappeared  the  lion  was  cautiously  creeping  after 
them. 

"  Now,  Hugh,"  said  Jack,  "  can't  we  go  over  there 
and  follow  that  lion  and  perhaps  get  him?  " 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  there's  a  chance,  of  course, 
of  getting  him  and  a  good  many  chances  that  we  may 
not  see  him  again.  If  you  feel  like  it,  we  can  get  up 
on  the  ledge  along  which  the  animals  passed.  We'll 
make  quite  a  procession,  I  think,  the  sheep  in  the 
lead,  the  lion  after  the  sheep,  and  we  three  after  the 
lion.  I  think  it  will  be  rather  a  funny  sight  to  see, 
and  I'm  willing  to  be  one  of  the  procession,  if  you 
like." 

With  due  caution,   and   making  as  little  noise  as 


2yo        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

possible,  they  crossed  over  to  the  hill  and  started  in 
pursuit  of  the  lion. 

As  Hugh  supposed,  the  chase  was  fruitless.  When 
they  got  round  on  the  other  side  of  the  hill  they  could 
see  the  three  rams  a  long  way  off  descending  the 
rocks  toward  the  meadow  at  the  head  of  Red  Eagle 
Valley,  and  after  a  careful  inspection  with  the  glasses 
the  lion  was  also  seen,  still  following  them,  but  some 
distance  behind. 

"  You  see,"  said  Hugh,  "  we  can't  catch  that  lion 
and  the  lion  can't  catch  the  sheep.  I  believe  we  might 
as  well  turn  round  and  go  back  to  camp.  We  can 
come  up  here  again  some  day  before  long  and  kill  a 
sheep,  if  we  need  one,  I  reckon,  and  possibly  get  a  shot 
at  the  lion,  but  we  can't  to-day." 

On  the  way  down  they  picked  up  the  pack  animals, 
and  as  they  passed  the  camp  Hugh  stopped  to  cook 
supper,  while  the  boys  took  the  horses  across  the  river 
and  turned  them  loose  to  feed,  returning  to  camp  on 
foot. 

The  day  had  been  warm,  and  from  the  mountains  all 
around  them,  sometimes  loud  and  sometimes  faint  and 
far  off,  came  the  rumble  and  roar  of  avalanches  slid- 
ing down  the  heights. 

As  they  were  eating  supper,  and  the  sun  was  sinking 
over  the  great  mountain  to  the  west,  Hugh  pointed 
toward  the  mountain,  and  they  saw  what  seemed  to  be 
the  greater  part  of  a  vast  snow  bank  start,  at  first 
moving  slowly  and  then  more  rapidly,  slide  for  some 
distance  down  the  mountainside,  pour  in  a  cloud  of 
what  looked  like  white  spray  over  the  great  cliff  at 
the  mountain's  foot  and  then  pile  in  a  bank  at  the  base 
of  the  cliff. 


A    FOUR-FOOTED    HUNTER  271 

"  Lots  of  snow  falling  to-day,"  said  Hugh. 

"  Lots  of  it,"  assented  Jack.  "  But,  say,  Hugh,  is 
this  going  to  keep  up  all  night?  " 

"  No,"  said  Hugh,  "  just  as  soon  as  it  gets  a  little 
bit  cold  these  slides  will  stop  falling,  and  then  if  the 
sun  shines  hot  to-morrow  they'll  begin  again  toward 
night." 

"  Don't  the  animals  sometimes  get  caught  in  these 
slides,  White  Bull?"  asked  Joe. 

"  I  don't  know,"  replied  Hugh.  "  Sometimes  Eve 
thought  they  do.  One  time  I  found  a  bunch  of  sheep 
bones  at  the  foot  of  a  cliff  lying  all  mixed  up  together, 
and  T  had  an  idea  that  maybe  they'd  been  caught  in  a 
snowslide  and  killed  there.  I  heard,  too,  of  a  man  that 
found  half  a  dozen  goats  once  in  just  such  a  place, 
and  he  thought  they  had  been  killed  by  a  slide. 

"  In  neither  case  had  the  animals  been  torn  to  pieces 
or  skinned.  Their  hair  and  wool  lay  all  about  them. 
Still,  I  reckon  these  mountain  animals  are  pretty  well 
able  to  take  care  of  themselves,  and  that  they  don't 
often  get  into  places  where  snowslides  can  harm  them. 
Nowadays,  most  of  the  sheep  live  too  high  up  to  be 
caught  by  slides." 

"  You  say  nowadays,  Hugh,  as  if  there  had  been  i 
time  when  the  sheep  did  not  live  high  up.     I  have 
always  thought  that  they  were  a  mountain  animal  and 
always  lived  among  the  rocks,"  said  Jack. 

"  Hold  on,  son,"  said  Hugh.  "  I  don't  know  if  Eve 
ever  talked  with  you  about  these  things  before,  but 
even  if  I  haven't  you've  seen  sheep  down  on  the  prairie 
yourself,  where  there  were  no  mountains,  living  around 
among  the  Bad  Land  Bluffs  just  where  the  black-tailed 
deer  or  elk  may  be  found,  and  where  the  buffalo  often 


272        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

go.  What  about  the  first  sheep  that  you  ever  killed? 
Was  that  in  the  mountains?" 

"  That's  so,  Hugh ;  you  are  certainly  right.  Sheep 
don't  need  the  mountains." 

"  No,"  said  Hugh,  "  they  don't.  Of  course,  they 
always  try  to  run  to  broken  land  when  they're  scared, 
but  that  broken  land  need  not  necessarily  be  mountain 
land.  I  have  seen  sheep  a  good  many  times  feeding 
out  on  the  flat  prairie  and  a  long  way  from  any  hills ; 
feeding  with  the  antelope,  in  fact.  Haven't  I  ever 
told  you  old  Hugh  Monroe's  story  about  how  the 
Piegans  used  to  hunt  sheep  in  old  times?" 

"  I  don't  know,  Hugh,"  replied  Jack.  "  If  you  have 
I've  forgotten  it." 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  all  through  the  Piegan  coun- 
try there  are  great  big  buttes  rising  up  out  of  the 
prairie,  and  in  old  times  there  used  to  be  lots  of  sheep 
on  all  these  buttes.  They  fed  on  the  prairie  down  be- 
low, and  then  if  they  got  scared  for  any  reason,  they'd 
run  up  on  the  rocks  and  get  away.  Old  man  Monroe 
says  that  in  old  times  when  he  was  a  young  man  the 
Indians  used  to  start  out  on  horseback  and  go  to  one 
of  these  buttes  where  sheep  lived  and  make  a  big  circle 
around  it.  Then  two  or  three  of  them  would  climb 
up  on  top  of  the  butte  and  run  the  sheep  off  the  top. 
Then  they  would  go  down  to  the  prairie  and  the  horse- 
men would  chase  them  and  kill  them.  They  used  to 
do  this  only  occasionally,  when  they  wanted  mountain 
sheep  hides  for  war  shirts  or  women's  dresses." 

u  Is  it  possible  that  the  sheep  here  were  ever  so 
plentiful  that  they  could  be  killed  in  that  way,  Hugh?  " 
said  Jack. 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  there's  no  doubt  about  either 


A    FOUR-FOOTED    HUNTER  273 

of  those  things.  A  sheep  can  run  pretty  fast  and  can 
climb  well,  but  on  the  level  a  good  fast  dog  can  over- 
take it  after  a  fairly  short  chase.  When  I  first  came 
into  the  country,  the  Indians  used  to  say  that  of  all 
the  animals,  except  the  buffalo,  the  sheep  were  the  gen- 
tlest and  easiest  to  kill." 

"  Well,  they've  changed  since  then,  haven't  they, 
Hugh  ?  "  said  Jack. 

"  Yes,"  replied  Hugh,  "  they're  pretty  sharp  now. 
We  saw  to-day  one  of  the  worst  enemies  that  a 
sheep  has,  and  one  that  along  the  mountains  here 
probably  kills  more  than  all  the  men  that  are  hunting 
them  do." 

"What  was  that,  White  Bull?"  asked  Joe,  "the 
lion?" 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  that's  just  what  it  is.  You 
see,  the  lion  is  at  work  all  the  time.  He's  got  to  eat 
every  two  or  three  days,  and  to  eat  he's  got  to  kill 
something.  Now  and  then  he  may  pick  up  a  bird  or  a 
rabbit  or  a  woodchuck,  but  his  main  dependence  is 
these  animals  here  in  the  mountains.  High  up  like 
this  there  are  not  so  many  lions,  and  I  was  surprised 
to  see  that  one  to-day,  but  lower  down  there  are  a  good 
many,  and,  of  course,  in  summer  they  work  up  higher. 
On  the  other  side  of  the  range,  where  deer  are  plenty, 
they  kill  lots  of  deer  and  a  few  elk,  but  they  also  kill 
a  great  many  sheep  and  goats,  most  of  them,  perhaps, 
young  ones. 

"  You  know  about  their  killing  goats,  son,  for  you've 
seen  them  do  it,  and  you  remember  that  story  that  I 
was  telling  you  the  other  day  about  a  lion  jumping  on 
what  he  took  to  be  a  sheep.  Now,  there's  a  place 
down  south  of  here  on  Boulder  Creek  up  near  its  head, 


274        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

where  two  men,  both  of  whom  I  know  well,  Colonel 
Pickett  and  Billy  Hofer,  found  eighteen  or  twenty 
skulls  of  sheep  all  by  one  rock.  They  had  been  killed 
at  different  times.  Some  of  them  were  mighty  old 
and  all  falling  to  pieces,  and  some  of  them  were  pretty 
fresh.  They  had  all  been  killed  under  a  high  rock, 
not  in  a  place  where  they  could  have  been  hit  by  a 
snowslide,  but  in  a  place  where  a  lion  could  lie  by  the 
trail  without  being  seen,  but  could  himself  see  both 
ways.  The  rock  was  right  over  the  trail,  so  close  that 
a  lion  could  jump  right  down  on  it. 

"  The  two  men  who  found  these  skulls  were  both  good 
mountain  men  and  they  both  believe  that  this  was  a 
place  where  a  lion  lay  and  killed  his  food  as  the  sheerj 
passed  along  the  trail  under  the  rock. 

"  There's  another  interesting  thing  about  sheep  that 
most  peop1e  don't  know.  A  sheep  is  awful  easy 
tamed,  especially  if  you  get  him  young.  I  knew  of 
one  owned  by  a  man  in  Salt  Lake,  caught  when  a  little 
lamb  and  as  tame  as  any  dog.  He  was  good-natured 
and  liked  to  be  petted.  He  spent  most  of  his  time 
lying  on  the  roof  of  the  house,  but  sometimes  he'd 
jump  down  and- feed  in  the  yard  and  sometimes  go 
quite  a  way  along  the  street.  Sometimes  the  dogs 
would  chase  him  and  he'd  come  back  as  hard  as  he 
could  pelt,  and  then  jump  up  on  the  roof,  where  he 
was  safe. 

"  I  once  knew  an  Indian  that  had  a  lamb  that  was 
perfectly  tame  and  was  not  afraid  of  the  Indian  dogs 
around  the  house.  This  Indian  lived  in  a  cabin  and 
was  always  complaining  about  the  sheep  because  it 
would  jump  up  on  the  windowsill,  sometimes  break- 
ing a  light  of  glass  out  of  the  window. 


A    FOUR-FOOTED    HUNTER  275 

"  You  take  a  young  sheep,  though,  and  tame  him 
and  let  him  grow  up  into  a  big  ram  and  he  isn't  afraid 
of  anything  and  is  likely  to  get  real  cross ;  and  I  ex- 
pect that  a  big  ram  can  hit  a  terrible  blow  with  those 
horns  of  his. 

"  I  reckon  there  are  sheep  found  all  the  way  up  and 
down  the  mountains,  maybe  from  the  Arctic  to  Mex- 
ico. I've  heard  of  a  white  sheep  up  North  and  of  a 
black  one,  and  I've  been  told  that  sheep  were  plenty 
down  in  the  hot  desert  country  in  California  and 
Arizona,  but  I  never  have  been  down  there  and  don't 
know  anything  about  them.  They  say  that  down  there 
they  kill  'em  by  watching  the  water  holes." 

"  I  suppose,"  said  Jack,  "  that  there  are  not  many 
sheep  found  on  the  prairie  now,  are  there?" 

"  No,"  replied  Hugh,  "  I  guess  there  are  very  few, 
if  any  at  all.  You  see  the  prairie  is  getting  covered 
with  cattle  now,  and  where  there  are  cattle  there  are 
cowboys,  and  the  cowboys  don't  like  anything  better 
than  the  fun  of  chasing  and  roping  any  wild  animal 
that  they  come  across. 

"  A  sheep  don't  bear  chasing  very  well.  If  they 
get  much  harried  in  any  place,  they  get  up  and  move 
away  to  where  they  think  they'll  be  safer." 

By  this  time  the  sun  had  set  and  it  was  quite  dark. 
The  roar  of  the  snowslides,  heard  less  and  less  fre- 
quently as  the  air  grew  cooler,  had  now  ceased,  and 
before  very  long  Hugh  smoked  a  final  pipe,  and  ad- 
vised all  hands  to  turn  in. 


CHAPTER  XX 

CLIMBING  A  GREAT  MOUNTAIN 

At  breakfast  the  next  morning  it  was  decided  that  they 
should  try  to  learn  something  about  the  great  mass  of 
ice  that  lay  in  the  basin  south  of  the  camp,  which  sup- 
plied the  water  for  the  river  that  fell  over  the  cliff. 

"  Now,  if  we're  going  up  there."  said  Hugh, 
"  we've  got  a  long  tramp  over  the  ice,  and  we  want 
to  go  as  well  fixed  as  we  can.  We  ought  to  have  one 
gun  with  us,  but  we  must  go  roped  and  take  our  sticks 
along.  We  may  find  that  the  ice  up  there  slopes 
sharply  and  is  smooth,  and  we  ought  to  have  some- 
thing to  help  ourselves  with." 

"  All  right,"  chimed  in  both  boys,  "  you  tell  us 
what  to  do  and  we'll  do  it." 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  the  first  thing  is  to  point  the 
ends  of  those  walking  sticks  again,  then  shove  them 
into  the  fire  to  harden.  Next  take  some  charcoal  and 
break  it  up  in  your  fingers  and  blacken  your  noses  and 
cheek  bones  and  your  faces  under  the  eyes.  Each  one 
of  you  ought  to  have  a  handkerchief  or  a  rag  to  tie 
around  your  heads  over  the  bridge  of  your  nose  if 
the  sun  gets  very  bright.  That's  a  good  protection 
against  snow-blindness." 

The  preparations  that  Hugh  advised  were  soon 
made,  and  the  sun  had  not  yet  showed  itself  above 
the  eastern  mountains  when  the  three  set  out  on  foot. 
For  several  hundred  yards  they  had  to  climb  a  steep 

276 


CLIMBING   A   GREAT   MOUNTAIN    277 

slope,  and  then  as  they  went  on  toward  the  precipice, 
they  came  to  a  level  bit  of  land,  over  which  were 
strewn  immense  masses  of  stone,  huge  monoliths  that 
made  Jack  think  of  the  stories  that  he  had  read  about 
the  ruins  in  the  old  places  of  worship  of  the  Druids. 

Beyond  this  level  land  was  a  talus  fallen  from  the 
cliff  and  then  a  morainal  trough,  up  which  they  passed 
to  the  ice  above.  From  this  point  the  whole  basin 
of  the  great  glacier  was  spread  out  before  them,  and 
Hugh  began  to  examine  it  with  a  view  to  making  the 
ascent  by  the  easiest  and  safest  path. 

Hugh  studied  the  situation  with  the  field  glasses  for 
a  long  time  and  then,  passing  them  to  Jack,  asked, 
"What  do  you  see,  son?  Which  road  seems  to  be 
the  best?" 

"  Well,  Hugh,"  answered  Jack,  after  he  had  looked 
over  the  ground,  "  it's  a  little  hard  for  me  to  say,  for 
I  don't  know  much  about  these  places.  The  shortest 
way,  of  course,  is  to  cross  over  to  the  right  and  try  to 
climb  up  the  rocks  there,  but  the  snowslides  and  rock- 
falls  seem  to  be  coming  down  all  the  time,  and  I 
shouldn't  suppose  that  would  be  safe.  The  same  thing 
is  true  about  going  close  to  the  mountains  on  the  left, 
and.  of  course,  we  can  all  see  that  we  can't  go  up  in 
the  middle.  It  looks  to  me,  too,  as  if  the  ice  were 
steeper  on  the  right  hand  than  it  is  on  the  left,  so  I 
should  say  that  it  was  better  to  keep  to  the  left,  just 
as  near  the  middle  of  the  glacier  as  we  can  without 
getting  in  among  crevices." 

"  What  do  you  say,  Joe?  "  asked  Hugh. 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  Joe.  "  I  guess  I'll  just  follow 
where  you  go,  but  it  seems  to  me  that  Jack's  talk  is 
good." 


278        JACK,   THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  think  so,  too,  and  I  believe 
that's  the  best  way  for  us  to  go.  I  ain't  so  much  afraid 
of  falling  in  those  cracks  in  the  ice  as  I  am  of  being  hit 
by  one  of  those  rocks  that  comes  down  a  thousand  feet 
or  two.  Even  a  little  bit  of  a  rock  could  crack  a 
man's  head  open,  and  if  one  of  those  big  rocks  ever 
hits  him  I  believe  it  would  go  right  through  him. 

"  I  think  Jack  is  right  and  we'd  better  go  where  he 
has  said.  Now,  before  we  start,  we  must  tie  ourselves 
together  with  this  rope,  and  if  we  get  to  a  place  where 
the  ice  is  any  way  cracked  we'll  have  to  go  pretty 
slowly,  so  that  only  one  man  can  fall  in  at  a  time,  and 
the  other  two  can  pull  him  out." 

They  started  without  further  delay;  and  now  for 
two  or  three  hours  followed  a  slow  plodding  walk  up 
the  face  of  the  ice.  Sometimes  they  came  to  a  long 
crevasse,  which  they  had  to  go  around,  but  at  no  time 
did  they  approach  very  near  the  edge  of  the  snow- 
falls. Several  times,  however,  they  passed  near  great 
stones  which  had  fallen  from  the  mountain  far  out 
onto  the  ice. 

At  one  point,  when  they  had  passed  over  three- 
fourths  of  the  distance,  they  heard  a  low,  rumbling 
sound  behind  them,  and,  turning,  all  three  were  in 
time  to  witness  the  fall  of  a  great  avalanche,  which 
threw  itself  far  out  onto  the  ice- 
It  was  afternoon  when  they  found  themselves  im- 
mediately under  the  ridge  of  rocks  which  was  their 
destination,  and  a  little  search  showed  them  a  place 
where  they  could  get  off  the  ice  and  on  to  the  rocks, 
and  they  were  soon  reclining  on  the  grassy  soil  crown- 
ing the  slope.  There  they  rested  while  Hugh  smoked 
a  pipe,  and  then  went  on.     To  their  left,  that  is  on  the 


CLIMBING   A   GREAT   MOUNTAIN    279 

side  of  this  ridge  of  rocks  opposite  from  the  one  by 
which  they  had  approached,  lay  another  great  mass  of 
ice,  which,  however,  sloped  the  other  way,  and  which 
Hugh  said  must  run  into  the  Flat  Head  or  else  into 
the  head  of  Cut  Bank  River. 

The  crest  over  which  they  were  passing  was  sub- 
stantially level,  and  before  them  stood  the  tall  rounded 
summit  of  the  great  mountain,  the  top  of  which  they 
hoped  to  reach. 

When  they  had  come  to  the  end  of  the  ridge,  it  was 
a  short  climb  down  to  the  ice,  and  passing  over  this  for 
a  short  distance,  they  came  to  more  rocks  and,  sur- 
mounting these,  found  themselves  at  the  edge  of  a 
dome-shaped  snow  bank,  which  seemed  to  stretch  away 
by  a  gentle  slope  to  the  very  top  of  the  mountains. 
To  the  north  was  the  slope  they  had  to  cross,  and 
immediately  below  the  edge  of  this  a  tremendous  drop 
of  perhaps  a  thousand  feet  to  another  ice  field  below. 

"  Here's  a  bad  place,"  said  Hugh;  "  if  this  snow  is 
real  hard  there's  a  chance  that  some  one  of  us  may  slip. 
We  must  go  across  slowly.  Come  to  the  edge  and 
then  we  will  go  forward,  one  at  a  time,  always  keep- 
ing the  rope  tight  between  us,  the  two  men  that  are 
standing  still  anchoring  themselves  solidly  by  means  of 
their  sticks.  If  one  of  us  should  slip  he'll  need  all  the 
help  the  other  two  can  give  him." 

Hugh  put  his  gun  down  on  the  rocks  and  said,  "  I 
reckon  I'll  leave  that  here  till  I  come  back.  I  may 
want  both  my  hands  crossing  this  snow." 

When  they  started  they  proceeded  with  great  cau- 
tion, following  Hugh's  instructions.  Occasionally  the 
snow  was  so  hard  that  it  was  impossible  for  them  to 
dig  their  feet  into  it,  and  it  was  even  difficult  for  them 


280        JACK,   THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

to  punch  their  sticks  down  into  it.  Each  one  as  he 
advanced  went  slowly  and  carefully,  while  the  other 
two  stood  still  to  support  him  in  case  anything  hap- 
pened. 

If  the  traverse  was  slow,  it  was  steady  and  safe; 
and  before  very  long  the  three  found  themselves  clam- 
bering over  the  broken  rock  near  the  top  of  the  moun- 
tain. At  the  moment,  they  had  little  thought  for  the 
wonderful  view,  since  the  minds  of  all  were  turned 
toward  the  summit  which  lay  before  them,  and  now 
only  a  few  steps   distant. 

A  moment  later  and  the  peak  was  gained,  and  the 
three  threw  themselves  down  in  a  sheltered  place 
among  the  great  rocks  that  formed  the  mountain  crest, 
where  the  view  was  entrancing  in  its  extent  and 
grandeur. 

In  all  directions,  as  far  as  they  could  see,  mountains 
lay  beyond  mountains.  Far  away  to  the  north  were  two 
which  seemed  higher  than  any  of  those  nearer  at  hand. 
The  whole  circle  of  the  horizon  could  be  seen  except 
that,  to  the  north,  the  view  was  interrupted  by  the  tall 
mountain  close  to  them,  which  equaled  in  height  the 
one  on  which  they  were  sitting,  and  behind  them  to  the 
south  was  another  peak  equally  high.  Away  to  the 
westward  the  eye  traveled  without  interruption  over 
lower  rocky  peaks  and  great  stretches  of  forest,  until 
it  met  other  mountain  ranges  running  north  and  south, 
so  far  away  that  only  their  dim  outlines  could  be  seen. 
To  the  north  there  was  no  such  low  country  as  to  the 
west,  for  peaks  and  ridges  thrust  their  sharp  points 
up  toward  the  sky,  and  one  gained  the  impression  of  a 
world  set  on  edge.  Although  they  could  not  see  them, 
they  knew  that  between  the  ridges  and  beyond  each 


CLIMBING   A    GREAT    MOUNTAIN     281 

peak  lay  some  narrow  valley  or  canyon,  and  that  only 
by  following  such  water  courses  could  the  country  be 
traversed. 

Immediately  before  and  below  them  lay  the  great  ice 
that  they  had  just  passed  over,  and  behind  or  to  the 
south,  that  other  extensive  ice  field,  which  Hugh 
now  said  flowed  into  a  tributary  of  the  Flat  Head 
River,  and  which,  years  before,  had  been  named  after 
a  man  who  crossed  the  mountains  through  the  Cut 
Bank  Pass,  the  Pumpelly  Glacier. 

"  I  tell  you,  Hugh,"  said  Jack,  "  this  is  a  wonderful 
place  up  here.  It  beats  anything  I  ever  saw.  I  can't 
help  wondering  how  these  mountains  got  tipped  up  in 
this  way,  and  what  the  force  was  that  changed  them 
from  level  or  rolling  ground  to  these  sharp  peaks  and 
ridges." 

"  Well,  son,"  replied  Hugh,  "  you  can't  prove  it  by 
me,  but  I  expect  that  most  of  these  valleys,  if  not  all 
of  them,  were  cut  out  by  the  ice,  just  as  we  see  below 
us  this  valley  here  being  cut  out." 

"  I  suppose  that  is  so,"  Jack  replied,  "  but  it  doesn't 
seem  quite  possible  to  me." 

"  Well,"  answered  Hugh,  "  you  must  remember  that 
if  our  understanding  about  these  glaciers  is  correct, 
they  may  have  been  working  for  thousands  of  years, 
and  if  they  only  ground  away  six  inches  or  a  foot  of 
the  rock  under  them  in  each  year,  a  thousand  years  or 
so  would  make  a  mighty  deep  valley.  And  besides 
that,  I  reckon  that  in  those  ancient  times  these  glaciers 
were  a  heap  bigger  and  heavier  than  they  are  now, 
and  maybe  they  moved  a  lot  faster,  and  in  that  case 
they'd  work  a  lot  faster,  wouldn't  they?  " 

"  I  suppose  they  would,"  agreed  Jack.     "  But  it's 


282         JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

mighty  hard  to  realize  such  things.  You  see  we 
human  beings  are  such  little  bits  of  things,  and  we  live 
so  short  a  time,  that  it's  mighty  difficult  to  comprehend 
the  forces  of  nature  that  never  stop  working." 

"  You  bet  your  life  it  is,"  said  Hugh.  "  It's  only 
within  a  few  years,  since  I  began  to  talk  to  people  who 
understood  something  about  these  things,  that  I  began 
to  look  back  a  little.  In  my  young  days,  so  long  as  I 
had  my  blankets  and  a  few  charges  of  ammunition  I 
never  thought  much  about  what  was  behind  me  or 
what  was  ahead.  Of  course,  I  always  looked  out  for 
myself  as  well  as  I  could,  but  I  never  thought  very 
much  about  the  world  and  the  things  that  are  going 
and  have  gone  on  in  it.  But  of  late  years  it's  different, 
and  when  a  man  does  think  about  those  things  it  kind 
o'  takes  his  breath  away  once  in  a  while." 

"  That's  so,"  replied  Jack.  "  People  say  that  we 
can't  count  the  stars  in  the  sky,  and  that  we  can't  un- 
derstand how  many  miles  away  from  the  earth  the  sun 
or  the  moon  is,  and,  of  course,  that's  true,  but  it's 
just  as  hard  for  us  to  understand  some  of  the  things 
that  are  going  on  right  under  our  noses,  as  it  is  to 
understand  time  or  space." 

Up  on  this  mountain  peak  the  wind  blew  cool,  and 
it  was  not  long  before  they  were  ready  to  turn  about 
and  begin  the  descent. 

"  We'll  go  back  the  way  we  came,"  said  Hugh, 
"  and  we  want  to  go  just  as  carefully  over  this  snow 
as  we  did  when  we  were  coming  up.  Only  one  man 
must  move  at  a  time,  and  the  others  must  fix  them- 
selves firmly,  so  as  to  hold  him  if  he  slips." 

The  traverse  back  across  the  snow  was  made  in 
safety,  and  before  very  long  they  found  themselves  on 


CLIMBING   A   GREAT   MOUNTAIN    283 

the  low  rocky  ridge  over  which  they  must  descend  to 
return  over  the  ice. 

Before  leaving  it  they  sat  down  under  the  lee  of  the 
ridge  in  the  warm  sun,  and  while  Hugh  smoked  a  pipe 
the  others  looked  out  over  the  wide  white  field  before 
them. 

Presently  Joe  called  out,  "  Look  at  the  sheep,"  and 
pointed  in  front  of  him. 

Jack  looked,  and  at  first  could  see  nothing,  but  after 
Joe  had  told  him  where  to  look,  he  saw  half  a  dozen 
tiny  dark  objects  moving  swiftly  about  without  order 
over  the  ice  a  couple  of  miles  away.  Borrowing  the 
glasses,  he  looked  at  them,  and  could  plainly  see  that 
they  were  f<  air-legged  animals  running  to  and  fro  over 
the  ice  field,  apparently  playing  with  each  other. 

Hugh  looked  at  them  and  said  that  they  were  indeed 
sheep,  as  Joe  had  said,  but  confessed  that  he  only 
called  them  sheep  because  he  knew  that  no  other  ani- 
mals could  be  found  in  such  a  place. 

In  the  soil  of  the  rocky  ridge  where  they  were  sit- 
ting Jack  discovered  some  beautiful  pink  flowers,  but 
neither  Hugh  nor  Joe  could  give  them  a  name.  They 
grew  on  exceedingly  short  stems  from  little  round 
bunches  of  green  leaves  shaped  like  a  pincushion  and 
with  the  general  aspect  of  what  Jack  remembered  in 
Eastern  gardens  as  phlox. 

He  would  have  liked  to  take  some  of  these  flowers 
back  with  him  to  have  them  identified,  but  had  no  way 
of  carrying  them. 

Still  roped  together,  the  three  once  more  descended 
to  the  ice,  and  started  toward  camp. 

The  walking  was  easier  now,  partly  because  it  was 
down  hill  and  partly  because  the  snow  had  been  soft- 


284         JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

ened  by  the  sun's  heat  and  gave  them  a  better  foot- 
hold. 

Hugh  advised  the  boys  to  tie  their  handkerchiefs 
over  the  bridge  of  their  noses,  and  to  pull  their  hats 
well  down  on  their  foreheads  to  shield  their  eyes  as 
much  as  possible  from  the  glare  of  the  sun. 

As  they  went  on  down  the  glacier,  they  could  see 
that  even  since  they  had  passed  up  in  the  morning  new 
cracks  had  opened  in  the  ice  and  some  that  they  had 
gone  around  on  the  way  up  had  lengthened.  Two  or 
three  of  these  were  so  narrow  that  they  could  step 
across  them,  but  Hugh  still  kept  as  far  from  the  rocks 
as  the  broken  condition  of  the  glacier  would  permit. 

They  were  walking  along,  the  boys  perhaps  a  little 
carelessly,  though  Hugh's  vigilance  never  seemed  to 
relax,  when  Jack's  left  foot  seemed  to  meet  with  no 
resistance  as  it  struck  the  snow,  and  in  a  moment  he 
was  in  a  crack  or  hole  in  the  ice  far  above  his  waist. 
Luckily  he  had  turned  his  staff  as  he  fell,  so  that  it 
reached  across  the  crack  and  held  him,  and  but  little 
strain  came  on  the  ropes  which  attached  him  to  his 
companions.  Hugh  had  heard  the  fall  and  had  braced 
himself,  and  a  second  later  Joe  had  done  the  same. 

It  took  but  a  moment  to  pull  Jack  out  onto  the  hard 
ice,  and  Joe,  making  a  detour  to  the  left,  avoided  the 
opening  into  which  Jack  had  fallen.  When  they  were 
all  once  more  together  and  on  the  hard  ice,  Hugh  said 
to  Jack,  "  Son,  you're  old  enough  not  to  have  done  a 
trick  like  that." 

"  Yes,  Hugh,"  replied  Jack,  "  I  know  that  now,  and 
I'm  sorry  and  ashamed.  If  I  had  followed  in  your 
tracks,  I  wouldn't  have  given  you  and  Joe  a  scare,  and 
I  wouldn't  have  had  one  myself.     Every  now  and  then 


CLIMBING   A   GREAT   MOUNTAIN    285 

I  do  some  stupid  thing  that  makes  it  seem  as  if  this 
was  my  first  trip  out  West,  and  I  didn't  know  anything 
at  all.  I  was  thinking  of  something  else  besides  the 
trail  and  looking  off  toward  the  valley,  and  I  left  your 
tracks  and  tumbled  into  that  hole." 

"  Well,"  replied  Hugh,  "  of  course,  you're  new  to 
traveling  around  on  the  ice.  You  can't  be  expected  to 
know  much  about  it,  but  you  can  be  expected  to  look 
out  for  yourself  as  well  as  you  know  how,  and  to  try 
hard  not  to  make  other  people  uncomfortable.  I  guess 
Joe  was  scared  up  good  when  he  saw  you  go  down,  and 
I  know  I  wasn't  a  bit  comfortable." 

"  No,"  said  Jack,  "  I  know  you  weren't  and  I  know 
it's  a  good  thing  for  you  to  talk  to  me  in  this  way. 
Your  talking  doesn't  make  me  feel  any  worse  than  I 
feel  already,  and  I  hope  I've  learned  a  lesson,  but,  of 
course,  I  don't  know." 

"  We  all  make  mistakes  every  day,"  said  Hugh, 
"and  it's  no  ways  likely  that  you've  made  your  last; 
only,  as  I've  told  you  before,  try  not  to  make  the  same 
mistake  twice.  If  you  do  that  it  shows  that  you  don't 
learn  anything." 

The  rest  of  the  way  to  camp  passed  without  ad- 
venture, and  when  they  reached  the  moraine  above 
the  cliff,  they  took  off  the  ropes  and  scrambled  down 
the  rocks,  when  a  short  walk,  and  a  slide  by  the  boys 
down  a  long  snow  bank,  brought  them  to  the  little 
stream  by  which  the  tent  was  pitched. 

The  sun  hung  low  over  the  western  mountain  and 
all  were  hungry  after  their  long  walk,  and  they  at 
once  busied  themselves  getting  supper. 

All  through  the  evening  Jack's  heart  was  low.  He 
was  sorry  to  have  made  such  a  blunder  as  he  had,  and 


286         JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

knew  that  his  carelessness  had  disappointed  Hugh.  It 
was  certainly  humiliating  to  have  done  what  he  felt 
Hugh  might  justly  call  a  "  fool  trick." 

As  they  sat  around  the  fire,  Hugh,  who  for  some 
time  had  been  smoking  thoughtfully,  said,  "  Well, 
boys,  we've  seen  quite  a  lot  of  things  up  here  on  this 
patch  of  mountains,  and  time  is  passing.  What  do  you 
say  to  turning  around  and  going  back?  I'd  surely 
like  to  stay  up  here  longer,  but  we  must  remember  that 
son  here  has  got  to  get  back  East,  and  we  have  quite 
a  little  way  to  go  before  we  strike  the  railroad.  I 
reckon  if  we  roll  to-morrow  morning  we  ought  to  be 
able  to  get  down  to  the  inlet  by  night.  We  can  stop 
there  for  a  day  or  two  and  hunt  and  fish  a  little,  and 
then  pull  out  for  the  Agency  and  from  there'  go  to 
Benton." 

"  I  suppose  we've  got  to  go  before  long,  Hugh," 
replied  Jack.  "  I  was  counting  up  the  days  only  the 
day  before  yesterday,  and  figured  that  we  hadn't  much 
more  time  here  in  the  mountains.  I  hate  to  go,  but 
there's  nothing  else  to  do,  I  suppose. 

"  It  seems  to  me  that  each  year  I  dislike  more  and 
more  to  go  back.  I've  never  had  such  good  times  as 
I've  had  with  you.  I  think  of  them  all  winter  when 
I'm  back  in  New  York ;  for  about  six  months  I  think 
of  the  good  time  I  had  last  year,  and  then  for  the  other 
months  I  think  of  the  good  time  I'm  going  to  have 
next  year.     I  hope  we'll  have  lots  more  of  them." 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  hope  we  will.  I  don't  know, 
though ;  I'm  getting  old,  and  I  don't  think  I  get  about 
quite  as  easily  as  I  used  to.  Of  course,  I  can  ride 
and  walk  as  far  as  I  could  when  you  first  came  out,  but 
it's  sure  that  a  time  is  coming  when  I'll  get  crippled 


CLIMBING   A   GREAT    MOUNTAIN    287 

up  and  won't  be  able  to  do  as  much  as  I  can  now.  I've 
got  some  old  hurts  that  sometimes  bother  me  a  whole 
lot  now  in  winter,  when  I'm  not  moving  around  very 
much,  and  the  older  a  man  gets  the  more  things  like 
that  trouble  him." 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  you  can  still  ride  farther  and 
do  more  than  any  man  I  ever  saw,  and  I  guess  it  will 
be  a  long  time  before  you  are  laid  up." 

The  next  morning  Hugh  roused  the  boys  while  it 
was  still  only  gray  dawn  and  sent  them  across  the 
creek  to  bring  in  the  horses,  and  by  the  time  they  re- 
turned breakfast  had  been  cooked,  the  tent  taken  down 
and  many  of  the  packs  made  up,  and  an  hour  or  two 
later  the  little  train  was  retracing  its  steps  toward  the 
lower  country. 

As  they  started,  Hugh  said,  "  Of  course,  we  could 
make  quite  a  cut  off  in  distance  by  going  down  on  this 
side  of  the  creek  and  I  don't  believe  we'd  have  much 
trouble,  but  then  none  of  us  have  been  over  the  ground. 
We  might  find  some  place  where  we  couldn't  get  the 
horses  down  easily,  and  worse  than  all,  we  might  have 
trouble  crossing  the  river.  It'll  take  us  an  hour  or 
more  longer  perhaps  to  go  around  the  way  we  came, 
but  that  way  we  know  we  can  keep  out  of  trouble,  and 
that's  the  way  we  better  go." 

All  day  long  they  traveled  down  the  river,  following 
the  trail  that  they  had  made  coming  up.  At  one  point, 
one  of  the  horses  mired  in  a  bog-hole  and  there  was 
some  difficulty  in  getting  him  out,  but  by  pulling  and 
urging  and  getting  some  willow  brush  and  throwing  it 
under  him  so  that  he  could  get  his  front  feet  on  it,  he 
finally  managed  to  pull  himself  out  without  having  his 
load  taken  off. 


288        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

As  they  were  passing  through  an  open  place,  from 
which  they  could  see  the  towering  precipice  of  the 
great  mountains  across  the  creek,  Joe  remarked,  "I 
think  I  see  three  bears." 

All  stopped  and  looked  in  the  direction  in 
which  he  pointed,  and  there,  sure  enough,  far  up  on 
the  precipice  above  them,  they  saw  one  very  large  bear 
and  two  much  smaller  ones,  industriously  feeding 
below  the  ledges.  They  did  not  see  the  travelers,  but 
were  much  too  far  off  to  be  shot  at.  Joe  asked  Hugh 
at  what  he  estimated  the  distance,  and  Hugh  said, 
"  Anywhere  from  six  hundred  yards  to  half  a  mile." 

Of  course,  Jack  was  strongly  tempted  to  suggest  that 
they  should  stop  here  and  try  to  hunt  the  bears,  but  he 
knew  that  the  prospect  of  getting  them  was  small  and 
so  said  nothing  about  it,  and  after  watching  the  uncon- 
scious animals  for  a  time,  the  train  moved  on. 

The  sun  was  only  an  hour  or  two  high  when  they 
descended  the  point  of  rocks  and  struck  into  the  open 
trail  along  the  upper  lake.  Here  Hugh  increased  the 
speed  of  his  horse,  and  the  boys,  keeping  the  pack 
horses  up,  reached  the  inlet  just  before  dark  and  made 
camp. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

TROUBLE    WITH    WHISKEY   TRADERS 

The  travelers  remained  here  for  several  days,  climb- 
ing the  mountains  to  hunt,  fishing  and  leading  a  gen- 
erally lazy  life.  The  weather  was  bright  and  clear, 
with  a  warm  sun,  and  these  idle  days  were  greatly 
enjoyed. 

In  some  of  the  deep  holes  in  the  inlet  were  great 
schools  of  monster  trout,  to  the  capturing  of  which 
Jack  gave  much  time.  Crossing  the  inlet  and  going 
up  on  the  flat  to  where  the  great  river  left  the  lakes, 
he  found  several  places  where  he  could  cast  his  flies 
over  the  swift-running  water,  and  from  behind  the 
great  rocks  over  which  the  stream  flowed  in  a  deep 
smooth  current  he  took  some  goodly  fish. 

Joe  delighted  to  sit  on  the  bank  and  watch  the  cast- 
ing, for  he  said,  "  Jack,  some  day  you'll  get  one  of 
those  big  fellows,  and  he'll  smash  that  little  limber 
pole  of  vours  all  to  pieces.  That's  what  I'm  waiting 
for." 

On  one  or  two  occasions  Jack  almost  feared  that 
Joe  was  to  have  his  wish;  the  biggest  fish  that  he 
caught  came  very  near  taking  away  his  tackle,  for  the 
fish  was  so  powerful  that  when  he  ran  down  stream 
Jack  was  obliged  to  race  along  the  shore  as  hard  as  he 
could,  jumping  from  rock  to  rock,  and  plowing 
through    shallow    water    before   he    got    to   a   deep 

289 


29o        JACK,   THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

pool  where  the  fish  stopped  of  its  own  accord,  and  he 
was  able  to  recover  his  line. 

It  seemed  to  Jack  a  full  hour  before  he  had  tired 
the  fish  sufficiently  to  tow  it  on  its  side  into  the  shallow 
water  of  a  little  bay. 

Joe,  who  had  followed  him  in  much  excitement, 
went  around  and  very  cautiously  approached  the  fish 
from  the  water  and  at  last  threw  himself  upon  it  and 
getting  his  fingers  into  its  gills  dragged  it  triumphantly 
ashore. 

When  it  was  fairly  landed  Jack  was  astonished  at 
its  size,  for  it  seemed  to  him  bigger  than  any  Hudson 
River  shad  that  he  had  seen,  and  when  he  took  it  to 
camp,  Hugh,  lifting  it  with  one  hand,  declared  that 
it  weighed  more  than  eight  pounds. 

They  had  all  talked  several  times  about  starting 
for  the  Agency,  but  were  reluctant  to  leave  this  charm- 
ing spot,  and  still  remained.  One  afternoon  when 
Jack  and  Joe  returned  from  fishing  at  the  head  of  the 
inlet  stream,  they  saw  just  below  their  own  tent  an- 
other, about  which  two  or  three  men  were  moving. 
Moored  to  the  shore  of  the  inlet  was  a  flat-bottomed 
boat  by  which  the  men  had  come,  though  Jack  could 
not  understand  how  they  had  pushed  it  up  the  swift 
stream  to  this  point. 

As  they  came  to  the  border  of  the  stream  and  were 
about  to  ride  in,  Jack  said  to  Joe,  "  Do  you  know  any 
of  those  men,  Joe?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Joe,  "  two  of  them  I  know,  that  white 
man  and  the  half-breed  down  by  the  water.  The  white 
man  is  John  Williamson  and  the  half-breed  is  Louis 
Legros.     I  don't  know  that  other  big  man." 

When  they  unsaddled,  Jack  noticed  that  Hugh,  who 


TROUBLE  WITH  WHISKEY  TRADERS    291 

had  come  out  of  the  tent,  looked  rather  grave,  and 
after  the  horses  had  been  turned  loose,  he  said  to  the 
boys  in  a  low  voice,  "  Those  fellows  down  below  here 
look  to  me  like  whiskey  traders.  There  has  been  a 
bunch  of  Bloods  up  here  to-day,  and  when  they  went 
away  some  of  them  were  drunk,  I  think.  These  men 
have  been  singing  and  making  plenty  of  noise  this 
afternoon,  and  they  may  give  us  a  little  trouble.  I 
want  you  boys  to  be  careful  and  not  have  any  words 
with  them,  no  matter  what  they  do.  If  there's  going 
to  be  any  rowing  or  jawing  let  me  do  the  talking." 

While  supper  was  cooking,  the  neighboring  tent 
grew  more  and  more  noisy.  The  men  there  were 
singing  and  shouting  and  sometimes  giving  Indian 
war  whoops,  and  once  or  twice  the  big  man  came  out  of 
the  tent  and,  calling  out,  invited  the  three  travelers  to 
come  over  and  have  a  drink  with  them,  but  they  re- 
turned no  answer  to  the  invitation. 

The  sun  was  still  an  hour  or  two  high,  and  Hugh, 
Jack  and  Joe  were  eating  their  supper,  when  suddenly 
a  shot  sounded  from  the  neighboring  tent  and  at 
the  same  time  a  chip  flew  from  the  front  tent  pole, 
showing  that  the  ball  must  have  passed  three  or  four 
feet  over  their  heads. 

Hugh  called  out,  "  Be  careful  with  your  shooting 
irons  over  there.  You  came  pretty  near  hitting  one  of 
us,"  but  the  only  reply  was  a  volley  of  angry  curses 
from  the  adjoining  tent. 

A  few  minutes  later  the  big  man  came  out  and 
stood  not  far  from  his  own  tent  and  raising  a  revolver 
which  he  held  in  his  right  hand,  fired  two  shots  in 
quick  succession  over  the  heads  of  the  three  who  werfe 
still  eating.     The  boys  did  not  know  what  to  do,  but 


292        JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

Hugh  slowly  rose  to  his  feet,  and  saying  to  the  boys, 
"  Keep  quiet  now  and  don't  mix  up  in  this  unless  you 
are  told  to,"  walked  over  to  the  big  man. 

As  Hugh  walked  up  close,  the  big  man  began  to 
abuse  him  violently  and  once  or  twice  half  raised  his 
hand  to  point  the  revolver  at  him,  but  evidently  thought 
better  of  it. 

Meanwhile,  the  man's  two  companions  had  come  out 
of  the  tent,  the  white  man  laughing  in  a  silly  fashion 
and  the  half-breed  more  or  less  frightened  and  ear- 
nestly imploring  his  companion,  whom  he  addressed  as 
Tony,  to  come  away. 

The  latter,  however,  seemed  fascinated  by  Hugh, 
and  no  longer  moved  nor  spoke,  while  Hugh  took  hold 
of  his  wrist,  wrenched  the  revolver  away  from  him 
and  threw  it  on  the  ground,  where  Jack  picked  it  up. 
Then  turning  Tony  about,  so  that  he  faced  his  friends, 
Hugh  said :  "  Now  you  three  men  break  camp  quick 
and  get  out  of  here.  I  won't  have  you  round  any 
longer." 

Hugh's  speech  seemed  to  break  the  spell  under  which 
the  man  had  been  laboring,  for  he  raised  his  fist  and 
struck  at  Hugh.  Before  the  blow  reached  him,  how- 
ever, Hugh  had  thrown  his  arms  about  the  big  man 
just  below  the  shoulders,  pinioning  both  his  arms  to 
his  sides. 

Tony  tried  to  free  himself,  but  he  could  not.  He 
struggled  violently  and  then  tried  to  kick,  but  Hugh 
stood  firm,  seeming  to  hold  the  man  tighter  and  tighter 
to  his  chest,  and  in  a  moment  Tony  had  forgotten  all 
about  fighting  and  was  screaming  with  the  pain  of 
the  pressure. 

It  was  exciting  to  both  the  boys,  and  they  waited,  not 


TROUBLE  WITH  WHISKEY  TRADERS     293 

knowing  what  to  do,  astonished  to  see  this  man,  who 
looked  like  a  giant,  held  as  if  he  were  a  little  child 
by  Hugh,  who,  though  tall,  was  rather  slender,  and  on 
account  of  his  white  hair  and  beard  appeared  to  them 
venerable. 

After  a  few  seconds  Tony  wTas  weeping  and  praying 
to  be  released,  and  promising  to  do  anything  he  was 
told  to  if  only  he  were  set  free.  Hugh  somewhat  re- 
laxed his  embrace  and  said,  "  Now,  you  Williamson 
and  you  Louis,  are  you  ready  to  go?  " 

"  Yes,  Hugh,"  said  the  white  man,  "  you  bet  we'll 
go  quick ;  "  and  Louis  assented. 

"  Have  you  got  any  arms,  any  pistols  or  guns?" 
said  Hugh. 

4k  Yes,"  said  Williamson,  "  I've  got  my  rifle  here 
and  Louis  has  a  six  shooter." 

"Well,"  said  Hugh,  "bring  'em  out  and  put  'em 
on  the  ground  here,  with  all  your  ammunition,  and 
we'll  take  'em  into  the  Agency  and  leave  them  there 
for  you."  Then,  raising  his  voice  a  little,  he  called, 
"  Boys,  come  over  here." 

Jack  and  Joe  came  up  and  Hugh  said,  "  Now,  take 
these  men's  guns  and  ammunition  and  carry  them  over 
to  our  tent  and  then  come  back." 

The  men  gave  up  their  arms  and  cartridges,  and  the 
boys  took  them  away  and  then  returned. 

"  Now,"  said  Hugh,  "  take  down  that  tent  and  get 
everything  you've  got  into  the  boat.  Now,  Tony," 
he  said,  adressing  the  man  whom  he  held,  "  if  I  let 
you  go,  will  you  be  quiet,  and  go  and  get  into  that  boat 
and  go  away  ?  " 

"  You  bet  I  will,"  said  Tony,  "  I'd  like  to  get  as  far 
from  you  as  I  could." 


294         JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

"  Go  on,"  said  Hugh.  "  Go  down  to  the  boat  and 
sit  there,"  and  the  man  staggered  off. 

"  Now,"  said  Hugh,  "  you  men  are  drunk,  both  of 
you ;  and  sometimes  drunken  men  tell  lies.  I  want  to 
look  through  your  baggage  and  see  if  you  have  any 
arms." 

He  searched  their  blankets,  but  found  nothing. 
Then  he  and  the  boys  helped  the  three  men  take  down 
their  tent  and  carry  their  property  down  to  the  boat, 
and  then  before  they  pushed  off,  Hugh  said,  "  Now,  I 
know  you've  got  some  friends  down  here,  Bloods,  I 
think,  and  you  may  as  well  go  down  and  camp  with 
them,  but  don't  try  to  get  the  Indians  to  trouble  us. 
You  Williamson  and  you  Louis,  know  me.  This  man 
here,"  and  he  pointed  to  Tony,  "  does  not. 

"  You  two  men  know  that  I  want  trouble  with  no 
one,  but  you  know  also  that  I  don't  mean  to  be  imposed 
on  by  anyone.  If  I  find  any  of  you  men  lurking 
around  my  camp,  I  shall  probably  shoot  you  for  horse 
thieves.  As  for  your  property  that  I've  taken,  I'll 
leave  it  at  the  trader's  store,  and  you  can  get  it  when 
you  come  in.  I  suppose  your  whiskey  is  cached  in 
the  brush  somewhere  here,  but  you  can  get  along  with- 
out it  for  a  day  or  two.  We  are  going  into  the 
Agency  pretty  soon,  and  after  we  have  gone  you  can 
come  and  get  it,  if  you  want  to.  Go  now,  and  don't 
let  me  see  you  again  on  this  trip." 

Hugh  loosened  the  painter  from  the  old  log  to 
which  it  was  tied,  tossed  it  into  the  boat,  and  when 
Louis  and  Williamson  had  gotten  out  their  oars,  he 
put  his  foot  against  the  bow  and  pushed  the  boat  off 
into  the  swiftly  running  water. 

For  fifty  or  sixty  yards  it  went  down  stream  stern 


TROUBLE  WITH  WHISKEY  TRADERS     295 

foremost,  and  then  the  two  men  by  clumsy  strokes 
turned  it  round,  and  in  a  few  minutes  it  vanished 
around  a  bend,  and  the  last  thing  the  boys  saw  was 
the  bowed  form  of  the  burly  man  sitting  in  the  stern, 
still  nursing  his  crushed  ribs. 

Hugh  walked  slowly  back  toward  their  camp,  the 
two  boys  following  him,  half  awed  and  whispering 
to  each  other ;  for  both  were  astonished  at  what  seemed 
to  be  a  new  phase  of  Hugh's  character. 

Hugh  did  not  stop  at  the  tent,  but  remarked  that 
he  was  going  out  to  look  at  the  horses,  and  the  two 
boys  sat  down  by  the  fire. 

"  I  tell  you,  Joe,"  said  Jack,  "  wasn't  it  wonderful 
to  see  Hugh  walk  up  to  that  man  with  the  pistol  and 
take  it  from  him?  " 

"  Sure,"  said  Joe,  "  it  was  fine,  but  then  White  Bull 
is  not  afraid  of  anything.  That's  what  people  have 
said  about  him  ever  since  I  can  remember." 

"  And  wasn't  it  fine  to  see  him  take  that  big  man 
and  squeeze  him  until  he  yelled?  I  should  have 
laughed  myself  to  death  if  I  hadn't  been  so  scared," 
said  Jack. 

"  Yes,"  said  Joe,  "  he  must  be  powerful  strong.  I 
should  have  thought  that  that  man  could  have  eaten 
White  Bull  up  in  a  minute.  He  must  be  powerful 
strong ;  I  should  hate  to  have  him  get  angry  with  me." 

"  That's  the  wonderful  thing  about  Hugh,"  Jack 
went  on,  "  that  he  makes  people  do  whatever  he  wants 
'em  to.  Of  course,  we  do  what  he  tells  us  to,  because 
we  know  that  he  knows  what's  right,  but  he  makes 
other  people  do  what  he  tells  them.  Of  course,  he 
doesn't  order  them  to  do  things,  but  he'll  say  it  would 
be  a  good  idea  to  do  something,  and  then  he'll  talk  for 


296        JACK,   THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

a  few  minutes  and  then  presently  the  people  will  go  off 
and  do  just  what  he  wants." 

"  That's  so,"  said  Joe,  "  I've  seen  that,  too.  I've 
seen  him  talk  sometimes  in"  a  council  of  old  men. 
Maybe  they  all  think  that  something  was  the  best 
thing  to  do,  and  then  White  Bull  would  get  up  and 
say  that  it  seemed  to  him  that  something  differ- 
ent ought  to  be  done,  and  he'd  talk  a  little  while 
and  presently  one  after  another  would  stand  up 
and  say  that  he  thought  that  White  Bull  was  right; 
and  then  they'd  all  do  just  what  he  said." 

"  Yes,"  said  Jack,  "  he's  a  great  man,  and  I  believe 
if  he'd  lived  back  East,  he  would  have  been  a  mighty 
big  man  among  the  white  people." 

"  Well,"  said  Joe,  "  if  he  lived  in  an  Indian  camp, 
he  could  be  the  chief  any  time  he  wanted  to." 

A  little  while  before  dusk  Hugh  came  back  and  said, 
"  Well,  boys,  I've  tied  up  all  the  horses  and  I  guess 
maybe  to-morrow,  if  you  like,  we  may  as  well  start 
for  the  Agency.  The  fact  is  we  couldn't  stay  out  here 
much  longer  anyhow,  because  if  it  came  on  to  rain 
now,  we'd  all  get  wet,  our  tent  has  so  many  holes 
in  it." 

Joe  said  nothing,  but  Jack  shouted  with  laughter  at 
Hugh's  mild  jest,  and  said,  "  Tell  me,  Hugh,  were  you 
at  all  scared  when  you  walked  up  to  that  man  with  his 
pistol  in  his  hand?  " 

"  Well,  really  son,  I  don't  know.  I  don't  think  I 
thought  much  whether  I  was  scared  or  not.  I  was  a 
little  bit  cross  with  him  for  acting  like  a  fool,  and  I 
made  up  my  mind  we  couldn't  have  them  around  here 
any  longer,  and  that  I  would  send  them  off." 


TROUBLE  WITH  WHISKEY  TRADERS    297 

"  But,  good  Lord,  Hugh,"  replied  Jack,  "  he  might 
have  killed  you." 

"  Yes,"  said  Hugh,  "  perhaps  he  might  if  he  had 
been  sober  and  could  have  hit  me,  but  I  didn't  think 
that  he'd  try  to  shoot,  and  if  he  had  I  don't  believe  he 
would  have  hit  me." 

"  Hugh,"  said  Jack,  "  do  you  know  what  I  thought 
of  when  you  were  holding  that  man  in  your  arms  and 
he  was  yelling  like  a  stuck  pig?  " 

"  No,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  don't." 

"  I  couldn't  help  thinking  about  a  story  that  Mr. 
Fannin  told  us  when  we  were  out  in  British  Columbia, 
about  how  the  bears  used  to  come  in  and  take  a  pig  out 
of  the  pen  and  hold  it  in  their  arms  and  walk  off  on 
their  hind   legs,   the  pig  squealing  all  the  time." 

Hugh's  eye  twinkled  as  he  said,  "  I  believe  I  do  re- 
member that  story.  So  when  you  saw  me  holding- 
Tony  that  way  you  took  me  for  a  bear  and  him  for  a 
pig,  did  you?  " 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  not  that  exactly,  but  it  made 
me  think  of  that.  It  seemed  awfully  funny  for  a  min- 
ute, but  I  was  too  scared  and  too  excited  to  laugh, 
although  I  wanted  to." 

"  Do  you  suppose  those  men  will  come  back,  White 
Bull?"  asked  Joe. 

"  No,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  don't  reckon  they  will. 
They'll  go  down  to  the  head  of  the  lower  lake  and  then 
they'll  go  ashore  there  somewhere,  and  build  a  fire  and 
lie  down  and  sleep  their  liquor  off.  If  we  start  in  to- 
morrow, we'll  likely  see  them  across  the  lake  when 
we  stop  to  get  the  wagon.  I  think  they'll  camp  on  this 
side,  and  to-morrow  morning  they'll  be  feeling  mighty 


298        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

mean  and  mighty  cross  with  each  other,  and  about 
the  time  we  get  down  to  the  wagon  and  hitch  up,  they'll 
be  waking  up  and  quarreling  with  each  other  about 
whose  fault  it  was  that  they  got  sent  away  from  camp 
the  night  before." 

"You  think  there's  no  danger,  then?"  said  Jack, 
"  that  we'll  have  trouble  with  them?  " 

"  Not  a  particle,"  said  Hugh.  "  In  the  first  place 
John  Williamson  hasn't  got  the  sand  of  a  cotton-tail 
rabbit,  Louis  Legros  is  a  good  fellow,  but  foolish. 
Who  that  big  man  Tony  is,  I  don't  know,  but  I  reckon 
he  may  be  Tony  Beaulieu.  He  has  a  kind  of  a  look  of 
that  Beaulieu  gang.  They're  good  enough  fellows 
when  they're  sober,  but  mighty  troublesome  when 
they're  drunk. 

"  We'll  never  have  any  further  trouble  with  them ; 
in  fact,  I  wouldn't  be  a  bit  surprised  if  they  were  to 
come  up  to  us,  the  next  time  we  see  any  of  them,  and 
say  that  they  were  sorry  for  what  happened." 

It  was  early  next  morning  when  Hugh  had  the  boys 
up  and  the  start  was  made.  The  sun  was  little  more 
than  an  hour  high  when  they  stopped  at  the  wagon, 
gathered  their  property  together  and  loaded  it,  and  set 
out  for  the  lower  end  of  the  lower  lake,  intending  to 
follow  the  wagon  road  up  to  the  Duck  Lake  Hill,  for 
this  would  be  easier  on  the  horses  than  the  steep  pull 
up  the  hill  they  had  come  down  in  approaching  the 
lake. 

As  they  started  down  the  lake,  Joe  pointed  across  to 
the  other  side,  where  a  spot  of  white  was  seen,  with 
two  or  three  small  moving  objects  about  it,  and  look- 
ing with  the  glasses,  Jack  saw  three  men  engaged  in 
the  work  of  putting  up  a  tent.     Before  they  passed 


TROUBLE  WITH  WHISKEY  TRADERS    299 

over  a  low  hill  which  cut  off  the  view  across  the  lake 
the  boys  saw  several  horsemen  ride  up  to  the  distant 
tent.  The  glasses  showed  that  these  horsemen  were 
Indians. 

The  drive  down  the  lake  was  slow,  for  they  crossed 
many  ravines  and  little  streams,  and  in  some  places  the 
road  was  very  muddy.  At  length,  however,  they  came 
out  on  the  flat  near  where  the  river  leaves  the  lake, 
and  looking  across  the  stream  saw  a  camp  of  thirty  or 
forty  lodges. 

"Do  you  know  who  these  people  are,  Joe?"  in- 
quired Hugh. 

"  No,"  replied  Joe,  "  I  don't;  I  don't  think  they  are 
our  people.  Maybe  they're  Bloods;  often  they  come 
down  to  this  side  after  they've  got  their  payment  from 
the  Government  up  North.  They  like  to  buy  things 
on  this  side  of  the  line." 

"  Well,"  said  Hugh,  "we'll  know  pretty  quick,  for 
there's  a  lot  of  them  starting  across  the  river,  or  I  miss 
my  guess." 

Sure  enough,  twenty-five  or  thirty  men  came  out  of 
the  lodges  and,  jumping  on  their  horses,  galloped 
down  to  the  fording  place. 

The  road  up  the  Duck  Lake  Hill  starts  not  far  above 
where  the  ford  comes  out  of  the  river,  so  that  Hugh 
and  his  party  had  to  keep  on  down  the  stream  until 
they  had  almost  reached  the  ford,  and  by  that  time 
the  hurrying  crowd  of  Indians  had  ridden  up  on  the 
bank  and  presently  surrounded  them  and  stopped  the 
team. 

Most  of  the  men  were  young,  but  among  them  were 
a  few  of  middle  age,  and  none  were  old  men  or  very 
young  boys. 


300        JACK,   THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

They  were  quite  noisy,  some  of  them  yelping  in  pure 
fun  and  high  spirits,  others  shouting  aloud  in  tones 
that  seemed  to  show  anger. 

When  they  got  about  the  wagon,  Hugh  pulled  up 
his  team  and  sat  there  looking  and  listening,  trying  to 
make  out  what  they  wanted. 

Jack  could  understand  a  few  words  of  what  was  be- 
ing said,  but  in  the  confusion  could  not  catch  its  drift, 
and  looked  inquiringly  at  Joe,  who  he  thought  wore  a 
very  solemn  face. 

During  the  colloquy  that  followed,  he  was  in  the 
dark  as  to  what  the  trouble  was,  but  it  was  afterwards 
explained  to  him. 

After  the  noise  made  by  the  Indians  had  somewhat 
subsided,  one  of  the  men  pushed  his  horse  to  the  front, 
and  coming  close  to  Hugh,  said  to  him,  "  Where  is  the 
whiskey  ?  " 

Hugh  replied,  "What  whiskey?" 

"  You  know,"  said  the  Indian ;  "  the  whiskey  you 
took  from  those  men  up  the  lake.  We  know  all  about 
it;  that  you  drove  them  from  their  camp  and  kept  the 
whiskey,  and  now  you  are  tak.ing  it  away  with  you, 
but  you  shall  not  do  that.  That  whiskey  was  brought 
here  for  us  and  we  are  going  to  have  it;  so  give  it  to 
us  now,  or  we  will  take  it  from  you." 

"  Look  here,  my  friend,"  said  Hugh,  "  you  talk  like 
a  child.  I  took  no  whiskey  from  those  men  and  I  have 
none  with  me,  and  I  shall  give  you  none.  It  is  true 
that  we  had  trouble  with  these  men  yesterday  and  that 
I  sent  them  away  from  our  camp,  but  I  took  no  whis- 
key from  them,  and  if  I  had  done  so,  I  should  not  give 
it  to  you. 

"  You  know  me,  for  you  have  often  seen  me  in  the 


TROUBLE  WITH  WHISKEY  TRADERS    301 

Piegan  camp,  and  I  know  you,  Wolf  Collar,  for  more 
than  once  I  have  seen  you  in  the  Blood  camp. 

"  Why  do  you  come  over  here  to  make  trouble  with 
people  on  this  side  of  the  line?  Do  you  think  that  you 
can  do  over  here  what  you  dare  not  do  over  there? 
You  know  very  well  that  if  you  were  to  act  like  this 
to  any  white  man  on  your  side  of  the  line,  the  Red 
Coats  would  soon  take  you  and  put  you  in  the  jail,  per- 
haps with  irons  on  your  feet.  You  have  lived  years 
enough  to  know  better  than  to  act  so  as  to  get  your 
young  men  into  trouble. 

"  Listen  to  me,  my  friends,"  he  said  in  a  louder 
voice,  addressing  all  the  Indians,  although  most  of 
them  were  near  enough  to  have  heard  his  conversation 
with  Wolf  Collar,  "  I  have  just  told  your  leader  that  I 
have  no  liquor  with  me,  and  that  if  I  had  I  should  not 
give  it  to  you ;  but  I  have  with  me  here  a  boy  of  your 
own  race,  a  Piegan,  who  knows  what  took  place  last 
night,  and  he  can  tell  you,  if  you  do  not  believe  me. 
Speak  to  them,  Joe,"  he  said,  "  and  tell  them  what 
happened  last  night." 

Joe  began  to  tell  the  story  of  the  trouble  of  the 
evening  before,  but  before  he  had  said  many  words,  the 
party  was  joined  by  a  late  comer,  who  rode  up  from 
the  river  and  close  to  the  wagon,  crowding  his  horse 
through  those  of  the  young  men,  and  occasionally,  if  a 
horse  did  not  make  way  for  him,  striking  it  fiercely 
with  the  quirt,  but  all  the  Indians  who  saw  him  got  out 
of  his  way  at  once. 

He  was  a  giant  in  stature,  with  a  heavy  and  particu- 
larly ferocious  face,  and  rode  a  beautiful  black  horse, 
which  seemed  too  small  to  bear  his  immense  frame. 
He  rode  up  to  the  wagon,  roughly  pushing  Wolf  Col- 


302         JACK,    THE    YOUNG    EXPLORER 

lar  out  of  the  way,  and  then  stretching  out  his  hand 
to  Hugh  shook  hands  with  him  and  said,  "  My  friend, 
you  seem  to  be  traveling.     Why  do  you  stop  here?  " 

"  Why,  hello,  Calf  Robe,"  said  Hugh.  "  I  didn't 
stop  here  willingly,  but  your  young  men  got  in  my 
way,  and  crowded  about  me,  and  asked  me  for  whis- 
key, which  I  have  not  got,  and  which,  if  I  had,  I 
would  not  give  to  them.  They  get  too  much  whiskey 
now." 

"  Why  do  they  ask  you  for  whiskey  since  all  who 
know  you  know  that  you  do  not  drink  whiskey,  any 
more  than  you  try  to  make  others  drink  it?  " 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  Hugh,  "  but  I  reckon  some 
of  them  have  seen  this  morning  some  whiskey  traders 
up  the  lake,  and  they  have  told  the  Indians  that  I  took 
their  whiskey." 

"  Truly,"  said  Calf  Robe,  "  these  Indians  are  fools, 
and  will  believe  any  lies  that  the  white  men  choose  to 
tell  them." 

His  evil  face  worked  a  little,  and  then,  turning  an 
angry  glance  on  Wolf  Collar,  he  said  to  him,  "  Go 
now,  go  all  of  you  to  the  camp  quickly.  After  this 
know  better  than  to  trouble  this  man  with  your  crazy 
talk.  Go,  I  say,"  he  repeated  fiercely,  and  striking  his 
horse  with  his  quirt  it  carried  him  with  a  bound  close 
to  Wolf  Collar,  whom  he  lashed  savagely  over  the  head 
and  shoulders. 

Wolf  Collar  darted  away  and  Calf  Robe  turned 
toward  another  man,  but  in  a  moment  the  whole  body 
of  Indians  were  galloping  down  into  the  ford,  many  of 
them  whooping,  yelling  and  laughing;  while  others, 
humiliated  by  the  way  in  which  they  had  been  driven 
off,  followed  silently. 


TROUBLE  WITH  WHISKEY  TRADERS     303 

"  Now,  my  friend,  go  your  way,"  said  Calf  Robe. 
"  Xo  one  will  trouble  you." 

"  Xo,"  said  Hugh,  "  I  think  not—when  Calf  Robe 
is  about,"  and  chirping  to  his  horses,  they  began  to 
climb  the  hill. 

During  the  whole  ascent  Jack  was  eagerly  cross- 
questioning  Joe  as  to  what  the  matter  had  been,  what 
had  happened  and  what  had  been  said.  Joe  explained 
everything  at  great  length  and  wound  up  his  talk  by 
saying,  "  Calf  Robe  is  a  great  man.  All  his  people 
fear  him." 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  "  from  the  way  he  rode  at  them 
and  lashed  them,  he  was  not  afraid  of  any  of  them. 
How  he  quirted  Wolf  Collar!" 

"  He  does  not  know  fear.  He  had  a  father  and  a 
grandfather  who  were  like  him ;  I  don't  mean  to  say 
that  they  looked  like  him,  but  they  were  big  men,  and 
when  they  told  people  to  do  anything,  they  did  it 
quick,"  replied  Joe. 

"  I  have  heard  lots  about  Calf  Shirt  and  about  Bull 
Back  Fat.  They  were  great  men.  Running  Rabbit, 
who  lives  in  our  camp,  is  also  one  of  his  relations,  and 
he,  too,  is  a  great  man.  You  know  he  used  to  be  head 
war  chief  of  the  Bloods." 

"  No,  I  didn't  know  that,"  said  Jack.  "  That  little 
kind  man  used  to  be  head  war  chief  of  the  Bloods? 
I  never  supposed  that  he  did  anything  except  sit  around 
and  tell  funny  stories  and  make  jokes.  It's  hard  to 
believe  that  he  was  a  great  warrior." 

"  Oh,  yes,"  answered  Joe,  "  one  of  the  greatest 
of  warriors." 

They  camped  that  night  by  Duck  Lake,  and  there 
Hugh  told  Jack  something  about  the  fierce  wild  life 


304        JACK,    THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

of  Calf  Shirt  and  of  the  way  in  which  he  was  finally 
killed  by  the  white  men. 

From  Duck  Lake  they  kept  on  to  the  Agency,  which 
was  reached  without  incident  four  days  later. 

The  morning  after  their  arrival  while  Jack  was  dress- 
ing preparatory  to  starting  off  to  the  railroad,  Joe 
burst  into  the  room,  calling  to  him  to  hurry  up  and  get 
out,  for  many  horses  had  been  stolen  during  the  night. 

The  flat  in  front  of  the  Agency  was  the  scene  of 
great  excitement  and  confusion.  Old  men  were 
haranguing  in  loud  tones  and  women  were  singing 
strong-heart  songs  to  encourage  their  relatives  about 
to  start  off  in  pursuit  of  the  enemy.  Men  were  gal- 
loping to  and  fro,  trying  to  borrow  swift  horses  or 
arms,  with  which  to  make  the  chase.  Every  now  and 
then  a  man  would  come  in  from  the  east,  reporting 
success  or  failure  in  the  search  for  the  trail  of  the 
robbers. 

At  last  one  man  came  who  had  followed  the  trail 
so  far  that  the  direction  which  the  thieves  would  take 
was  pretty  well  known,  and  presently  a  large  body  of 
horsemen,  armed  with  rifles,  bows  and  arrows,  and 
lances,  started  off  down  the  creek,  riding  with  a  cer- 
tain air  of  dignity  until  they  had  gone  some  distance 
from  the  stockade,  and  then  breaking  into  a  faster  run. 

"  Well,  Joe,"  asked  Hugh,  "  are  our  horses  all 
right?" 

"  Yes,"  replied  the  Indian  boy,  "  they're  all  right, 
and  it's  mighty  lucky,  too.  I  would  have  turned  them 
out  last  night  if  there  had  been  any  feed  close  by,  but 
as  there  wasn't  any,  I  got  Joe  Bruce  to  give  me  some 
hay  and  locked  them  up  in  his  stable.  Last  night 
somebody  tried  to  pry  off  the  chain,  but  the  staples  are 
clinched  and  they  couldn't  move  them." 


TROUBLE  WITH  WHISKEY  TRADERS     305 

"Well,"  said  Hugh,  "  that's  mighty  good.  Now 
you  go  and  hitch  up,  and  we'll  say  good-by  to  the 
Major  and  Bruce  here,  and  then  we'll  roll." 

A  few  days  later  Jack  and  Hugh  shook  hands  in  the 
railroad  station  at  Helena  and  parted,  the  one  going 
west  to  reach  the  ranch,  while  the  other  started  for 
his  far-away  home  in  New  York. 


TO-DAY 

Up  to  the  time  when  Jack  Danvers,  with  his  two 
friends,  penetrated  to  the  head  of  the  St.  Mary's  River 
and  Swift  Current,  nothing  was  known  of  the  upper 
courses  of  either  stream.  Men  who  had  been  longest 
in  the  country  had  never  ascended  beyond  the  Upper 
St.  Mary's  Lake — from  its  shape  called  Bow  Lake  in 
early  times — nor  beyond  the  large  lake  on  Swift  Cur- 
rent, which  receives  the  water  from  the  river's  three 
forks. 

What  lay  beyond  these  lakes  was  still  unknown. 
Ancient  but  long-disused  trails  ran  up  the  rivers ;  some- 
times so  dim,  so  overgrown  with  grass  and  weeds,  and 
so  blocked  by  fallen  timber,  that  it  was  hard  to  say 
whether  they  were  Indian  hunting  trails,  or  merely 
paths  worn  by  the  buffalo  and  the  elk,  which  in  bygone 
days  had  made  their  homes  among  the  rocky  fastnesses 
at  the  heads  of  these  streams.  What  had  made  these 
trails,  who  had  traveled  them,  was  unknown. 

There  is  a  wonderful  fascination  in  penetrating  a 
new  country,  in  placing  one's  foot  where  perhaps  the 
foot  of  civilized  man  never  trod  before. 

A  century  ago  there  were  many  such  places  in  the 
United  States,  fifty  years  ago  there  were  still  not  a 
few,  twenty-five  years  ago  there  were  hardly  any,  and 
it  is  no  wonder  that  Hugh  and  Jack  wished  to  explore 
these  valleys  and  the  mountains  that  walled  them  in. 

Within  a  few  years  after  the  discoveries  made  by 
Hugh  and  Jack  at  the  heads  of  these  rivers,  other 

306 


TO-DAY 


307 


parties,  hearing  of  what  they  had  found,  followed 
the  same  trails.  Soon  it  became  not  unusual  for  one 
or  two  hunting  parties  to  camp  each  year  among  these 
mountains.  The  fame  of  their  beauty  and  grandeur 
spread  from  one  person  to  another  and  many  people 
visited  them. 

Among  these  at  length  came  a  party  of  engineers 
sent  out  by  the  Government  to  consider  the  question  of 
diverting  the  waters  of  the  St.  Mary's  River  from  their 
natural  course  to  join  the  Saskatchewan,  into  a  new 
channel  southward  across  Milk  River  Ridge,  and  by  a 
great  irrigation  project  thus  to  make  fertile  a  vast  area 
of  arid  country  in  Northern  Montana. 

Meanwhile,  the  Government  had  purchased  from  the 
Blackfoot  Indians  these  rough  mountains  in  which 
many  miners  professed  to  believe  great  mineral  wealth 
was  hidden.  The  country  was  thoroughly  prospected 
for  precious  metals,  for  copper,  and  finally,  for  oil,  but 
nothing  was  discovered  that  promised  to  pay  for  the 
working,  and  the  mines  and  claims  were  abandoned. 

Finally,  in  the  month  of  February,  1908,  Senator 
Thomas  H.  Carter,  of  Montana,  introduced  in  the 
United  States  Senate  a  bill  establishing  the  Glacier 
National  Park,  to  include  territory  visited  and  seen 
by  Hugh  and  Jack  on  both  slopes  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains and  to-day  lying  between  the  International 
boundary  and  the  Great  Northern  Railroad  on  the 
north  and  south,  and  the  Blackfoot  reservation  and 
one  of  the  forks  of  the  Flat  Head  River  on  the  east 
and  west. 

If  the  measure  shall  become  law,  this  most  beauti- 
ful country,  with  its  wonderful  glaciers,  its  rushing 
rivers,  its  broad  forests  and  its  abundant  game  supply, 


308        JACK,   THE   YOUNG    EXPLORER 

may  remain  forever  as  a  pleasure  resort  and  play- 
ground for  the  benefit  of  the  whole  people  of  the 
United  States.  Valuable  as  it  will  be  in  this  respect, 
its  economic  worth  to  the  United  States  will  be  not  less 
great.  It  will  be  a  mighty  reservoir,  from  which  for 
ages  an  unfailing  supply  of  water  may  be  drawn  to 
give  drink  to  those  thirsty  plains,  which  need  only 
moisture  to  yield  a  generous  return  to  the  farmer. 


o 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


